Black, grey (or silver) and white remained the favorite car colors for new passenger vehicles registered in Germany in 2013.
Germany’s favorite car colors remained unchanged in 2013 as black, grey (including silver) and white. While both black and silver are loosing in popularity, white is again an increasingly popular color choice for new cars ordered in Germany. Other colors remain remarkably stable too with brown still frighteningly popular. Three-quarters of new cars in Germany are without color, i.e. white, black, or grey / silver.
Germany’s Favorite Car Colors in 2013
The favorite colors for new cars ordered by German car buyers in the past three years were as follows according to new passenger vehicle registration statistics released by the KBA:
| Color | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 |
| Black | 28.3 | 29.5 | 31 |
| Grey | 27.7 | 29.4 | 30.9 |
| White | 17.9 | 15.7 | 13 |
| Blue | 8.5 | 8.2 | 9 |
| Brown | 6.6 | 6.7 | 6 |
| Red | 6.3 | 5.9 | 5.8 |
| Others | 4.7 | 4.6 | 4.3 |
Source: KBA
Changes in Car Color Choices in Germany
Color choices for new cars in Germany generally change only very gradually in large part due to the car color having a strong influence on the second-hand value of the vehicle a few years later. The most noticeable changes in recent years are the increasing popularity of white cars and the decline in popularity of both grey (and silver) and blue cars.
In 2013, 18% of German car buyers opt for white cars meaning almost every sixth new car in Germany is now painted white. In 1991, 13.8% of all new cars in Germany were white but this choice fell to a low of 1.6% in 2006. The return in popularity of white is attributed by the VDA partly to the increasing tendency of automobile manufacturers to use white cars at auto shows to illustrate low-emission vehicles.
Black cars have been the top color choice in Germany in recent years. Black breached the 20% level in 2002 and reached a high of 31.3 in 2008. In contrast, silver and grey cars have been slipping in popularity since reaching its highest share of 46.4% in 2004.
Blue cars were hugely popular in Germany during the 1990s when a quarter of all new cars were in various shades of blue. This was in part due to blue being one of the colors without surcharge on many popular Volkswagen cars.
In recent years, around 6% of German car buyers picked red. However, back in 1991, red was the top choice with 28.4% new cars registered in Germany painted red.
The popularity of brown cars is a more recent phenomenon while other colors had very low numbers in 2013: 0.5% for orange, 0.6% for purple, 1% for green, and 1.6% for yellow.
Car colors of new passenger vehicles registered by women in Germany follow the same trends as the general market but the numbers are different: 23.7% for black, 21.9% for grey or silver, 20.1% for white with red at 11.1% almost double the percentage of the overall market.