Car colour trends | predictions and insights for 2025

If you are a certain age you’ll notice with horror that clothes and haircuts from previous generations come back into fashion. Mullets, shell suits and white socks with sandals are now back on the catwalk.

The same happens with car colours. There are certain shades which are permanently popular, such as silvers, blacks and greys, while others slip in and out of fashion. Look at white for example: it was once only for vans and Spanish hire cars but then became the ‘must have’ colour and is still popular now. These trends start with futuristic concepts seen at motor shows and filter down to exotic supercars and finally to the mainstream models.

Presidential green is the new black

In the UK we can see the trends in the official registration data. Green cars continued to grow in popularity in 2023, reaching the highest volume since 2004, while red has declined steadily since 2019. Orange, bronze, turquoise and brown all fell too.

Green in particular has been the ‘flavour of the month’ with prestige and exotic car buyers for several years now, and there are even Instagram feeds dedicated to pictures of high-quality models with the combination of green exterior paint and a tan leather interior.

There is a good reason for this recent love of green, according to the design boss of Chinese car giant Geely, Stefan Sielaff. “It’s Zelensky,” he says, referring to the president of Ukraine. “He was suddenly the most visible man in the world and was always wearing khaki. This made it instantly fashionable and you could see it in clothes, cars, iPhones everything.”

This reflects research from The Economist which showed that British buyers have traditionally bought cars which are darker when the national mood is less optimistic. When times are better, we dare to buy brighter colours.

Car colours: the future is bright

If that’s true, there are signs that we are now starting to feel more positive about the world. Fiat in particular wants to introduce a bit of colour in our lives and get us into brighter cars. “We decided to stop the production of Fiat grey cars. This is challenging and disruptive and it is aimed at further reinforcing FIAT’s leadership as the brand of joy, colours, and optimism,” said Olivier Francois, Fiat’s Chief Executive Officer.

Lesley Busby, Colour Design Manager at Nissan Europe says there is increased interest in the bright shades too: “While monochrome colours such as black, grey and neutrals remain the staple choices, we’ve seen a higher demand for bold and extrovert colours. For example, we recently re-introduced yellow on our Juke in response to customers. And with more and more flexible production techniques we can offer different colour roof, door mirrors and other details. This desire to personalise our belongings reflects trends we see in fashion and technology.”

Karl Neuhold from Skoda has looked to fashion for inspiration too. Although he is committed to the brand’s trademark light green, he’s not afraid to add a few flourishes. He says: “For us, green is perfect because it represents the brand’s values. But have you seen how it’s now normal to wear trainers and hiking boots at in formal ways? These shoes will always have a kick of colour – an extra label or flash. You will see increasing flashes of colour on our cars too – maybe an extra bright detail on a grille or wheels. This reflects our owners’ desire to have an active lifestyle.”

Back to black?

Ian Callum isn’t giving up on black just yet, but is also embracing the trend for contrasting colours. The Scottish stylist has been director of design for both Aston Martin and Jaguar as well as penning popular models such as the original Ford Puma and Escort Cosworth. He now runs the Callum design agency which is launching its first car – the SKYE – later this year. He says: “I think we’ll see three colour trends emerge. The first is a twist on classic black in the form of dark metallics with tints. Black has always been the safest form of an ‘exotic’ colour, so it’s a strong base from which to get creative.

“The second is a return to vibrancy such as Signal Orange or Green. For SKYE, we want to have some fun, eye-catching options that pop. Finally, I predict a trend for more two-tone vehicles with contrasting roofs or body panels. It’s bold, but if done with restraint it can be beautiful.”

Other designers are sticking to the one colour. Andreas Mindt, Head of Design for Volkswagen Passenger Cars can’t see any surprising shades coming out of the blue. “For us, blue has always been a core part of Volkswagen’s identity and will continue to be so,” he says. “While colour trends may change, we are committed to blue and are currently exploring the perfect shade to represent the future of Volkswagen.”

Besides fashion, there are often practical reasons to choose the more restrained colours. Peter Stevens is one of the most respected designers in the world, with work which includes the McLaren F1, various Lotuses and the Prodrive Subaru World Rally Championship-winning car. He says there is logic behind colour choices historically: “In Italy it’s hot of course, so people would buy white cars to reflect the heat. If you chose black it was a sign that you could afford air conditioning so was a status symbol. That’s not so relevant these days as every car has it, but the associations with black being upmarket carry on.”

The most famous of his designs, the McLaren F1, was mostly seen in silver. Is this because the more interesting cars don’t need bright paint? “There is some truth in that, as cheaper cars can really benefit from being bold. But the reason for the first F1s being silver is more boring than that really. In the design studio we make a clay model and then we cover it in sheets of something called DI-NOC, which is like a skin of paint which moulds around the clay. That was only available in silver, so that’s what it got. But it always looked good under the hectic and unpredictable lights of a motorshow anyway, so was a good choice.”

As a result of the launch car being silver, more than half of the F1s sold were painted that colour. “I guess people knew what it would look like and you don’t want to take a risk with a car which costs a million dollars.”

PCP buyers choose bolder colours

There is less of a risk these days, says Peter, as drivers will typically buy a car on finance which means they hand the car back after three years and don’t have to worry about the resale value. That can encourage them to be bolder. “You are only ever going to be stuck with it for a few years and then it’s going to be up to someone else to sell it. I’m sure a lot of buyers who might choose a bold colour are steered away from it by a salesman who is frightened of the resale potential.”

Peter predicts the next big trend will be ‘stone’ shades which look like pebbles. While these would be bland on a living room wall, they are a brave choice on a car, especially with a satin finish. For example, Fiat is launching a new 500e Giorgio Armani edition which seems to go against its ‘no grey’ policy as it’s available in a colour it calls ‘Greige’ – a blend of grey and beige.

There is another way to be bold without the risk, and that’s to get your car wrapped in a removable film. Sean Davis from CreativeFX has wrapped thousands of cars in the past 30 years and has seen all the trends. He says: “The really bright stuff and the chrome wraps tend to be for promotional use rather than private customers. We mostly get asked to do the satin finishes in black or grey which give protection as well as a different look. But occasionally we will do something bespoke. A special paint colour will cost £30,000 to £40,000 if you order it from the factory but we can do it for £6,000 to £8,000. You can then remove it if the next buyer isn’t as keen on your shade of nail varnish.”

Sean says there is one brand in particular which benefits from additional colour choices – Tesla. “We also do a lot of Teslas as the standard colour palette is limited and people want something a bit different,” says Sean. We’ve done 40 of them at least. Tesla owners are very enthusiastic about their cars and often require something in either matt or chrome. This includes changing badging colours too. Even the more subtle shades stand out because we are so used to the standard whites, reds and blues. ”

Cars in white satin

Some manufacturers are embracing the trend towards satin finishes, now that the technology exists to make the paint last. While most owners want their paint to stay glossy, those with matt paint want to prevent it getting a shine.

There are other paint technologies coming too. Nissan’s Lesley Busby says: “By adding ‘effect pigments’ – microscopic chips of different colours – to the paint formula, the shade of the car can appear to change dramatically according to the way the light catches the surface. As the move to Electric Vehicles continues, the use of textured contrasts will become more prevalent to emphasise the technology within the car.”

These are different to the ‘flip-flop’ colours which were briefly fashionable two decades ago. Peter Stevens says: “Those paints were clever but they looked awful. In some lights in looked brown! But the main problem was that they were very difficult and expensive to repair, so a scratch could ruin the car as it would never look right.”

Colourful cabins

What about inside the car? There’s been a definite shift there too, says Debra Choong, the Design Manager at leather supplier Bridge of Weir. She says: “I have seen a definite but gradual and exciting shift in the colour selections of interiors. New technologies in material engineering have allowed designers to incorporate much lighter, cleaner shades into their portfolios.

“Where black and dark browns were once prevalent for purely practical reasons, Nordic-inspired hues of cream, light greys, and pale blue have become popular luxury interior options. A sense of fun and vibrancy is also making its way into the mix.”

If you are tempted to go bold for your next car, Peter Stevens has some advice: “You can’t choose a colour by looking at it on a screen. What you see on your computer will be different to the way it looks on your phone. You need to see it out in the daylight, preferably where you live. Something which looks good in bright light might look really dreary on a dull day.”

It’s worth taking some time to get your colour choice right, it seems. Like fashions in hair styles, it’s best to mullet over.

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