More than a quarter of all new cars sold in 2022 will be painted gray, but green will see the biggest increase in sales, up 74.2%.
While gray was the most popular color for the fifth year in a row, a total of 31,220 new green cars were sold in 2022: nearly 13,300 more than the previous year.
Fittingly, nearly a quarter of them are “green” in another way: they may be insert.
However, the UK’s new car market as a whole remains largely monochromatic.
Combined with 25.7 percent of new gray cars (a staggering 415,199 cars were sold last year), black paint made up 20.1 percent of sales, while white made up 16.7 percent.
That means more than six out of every 10 new cars sold in 2022 will be gray, black or white.
silver on slide
From 2000 to 2011, silver was the most popular paint color in the UK for 12 consecutive years. In 2022, though, its market share fell to its lowest in more than 20 years; just 6.1% of new cars were silver. In fact, both blue and red are more popular than silver right now.
At the same time, green surged to seventh place in the new car color rankings, with a market share of 1.9%. About 1.2 percent of new cars sold last year were orange, with yellow at 0.7 percent and bronze rounding out the top ten with a 0.5 percent share.
Least popular color? Maroon, pink and cream — combined, they accounted for less than one percent of new cars, with pink’s market share the lowest since 2009.
“In theory, the choice of car color says something about who we are as drivers,” said SMMT CEO Mike Hawes. “Buying a new car today has so many possibilities to customize your vehicle to match.
“While the most popular colors remain the same for 2022, for those looking to ensure their vehicle stands out from the crowd, there will still be a wide variety of colors to choose from to suit every role.”
Top 10 new car colors in the UK for 2022
- grey
- Black
- white
- blue
- Red
- silver
- green
- orange
- yellow
- bronze
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