If you look at Germany’s streets, you get the impression that the cars are all gray, silver, black or white. And the impression is hardly deceptive: almost 80 percent of cars look like this. But buyers are slowly becoming a bit braver: green is increasing by almost 26 percent.
When it comes to choosing the color of their car, German drivers are not very adventurous. “More than three quarters (77.3 percent) of buyers in Germany opt for the colors grey/silver, black or white,” said the Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), which evaluated the relevant data from the Federal Motor Transport Authority Tuesday. Accordingly, however, the number of registered green cars has increased significantly – even if their share remains small.
The most popular color is still grey/silver: 30.8 percent of newly registered vehicles have it – that’s another 0.9 percentage points more than last year. According to the VDA, Schwarz is in second place with 26.3 percent and an increase of 1.7 percentage points. The proportion of white cars in new registrations, on the other hand, fell by 1.2 percentage points to 20.2 percent – third place. And still significantly more than in 2006: At that time, only 1.6 percent of new car buyers opted for a white car.
Among bright colors, green increased. “Although green accounts for only 2.2 percent of new registrations, a look at the absolute figures shows an increase of 25.7 percent,” explained the VDA. The most popular car color is still blue with a share of 9.9 percent, followed by red with 5.8 percent.
“When making their color decision, many car buyers are probably already thinking about resale in a few years and calculate the best value for a color that is currently very popular, i.e. black, white and grey/silver,” the association suspects. “This means that the choice of color is subject to a self-reinforcing effect.”
The VDA evaluation is based on current KBA data. All new passenger car registrations in Germany from January to November 2022 are taken into account. Comparisons with the previous year refer to the corresponding comparison period.
