The report shows that while white remains the favourite colour of car drivers, its market sh are is weakening and grey is picking up the slack, with an increasing share.

In Europe, it has even become the dominant colour in the market.

This new report reveals that most cars on the road today are white (35%, down by 3 percentage points), black (19%) or grey (19%, up by 4 points).

Silver (9%), blue (8%) and red (5%) follow.

But just about everywhere in the world, what stands out is the increase in sales of grey-coloured vehicles.

In Europe, it has become the most popular shade for cars (27%), ahead of white (23%) and black (22%).

Conversely, grey is least represented in Asia (13% of sales), a continent that is massively adopting white (45%), particularly in China (50%) although it has finally started to drop in share there.

Returning to Europe, where grey dominates, the colour is most popular for compacts, sedans and sports cars.

SUV buyers prefer white, while those who can afford a luxury car prefer black. By comparison, in the US, white wins in all categories.

The study doesn’t indicate whether this trend for grey tone is related to the pandemic and the low morale of motorists.

Axalta has been providing these annual reports on car-buying colour trends and preferences since 1953.