Automakers Keep Adding Colors, Yet Eight In Ten New Cars Are Grayscale

80.4% of 2025 vehicles had a grayscale color such as white, black, silver or gray.
The only ‘fun’ color to crack into the top five was blue with a 9.1% market share.
Sports cars are most likely to have colorful paint jobs, while trucks are the least.

Automakers have embraced colorful designs as blue interiors are coming back and bright hues are being added to numerous models. These are interesting developments, but we sadly live in a grayscale world.

That’s clear in a new study from iSeeCars, which examined the most popular exterior colors for 2025. White dominated with a 25.7% share, while black and gray weren’t far behind at 23.4% and 22.9%, respectively. Adding silver into the mix means grayscale colors accounted for 80.4% of vehicles last year.

More: Want A Car That Won’t Depreciate Fast? Pick This Color

That’s more than eight out of ten and it’s a huge increase from 30 years ago. Back in 1996, just 47.3% of vehicles were white, black, gray, or silver.

Most Popular Colors by Market Share

Rank	Color	2025	1996	% Change
1	White	25.7%	22.1%	16.7%
2	Black	23.4%	14.2%	64.5%
3	Gray	22.9%	3.6%	528.4%
4	Blue	9.1%	10.2%	-10.8%
5	Silver	8.4%	7.3%	14.3%
6	Red	7.0%	20.1%	-65.2%
7	Green	2.2%	13.4%	-83.8%
8	Brown	0.4%	2.9%	-84.6%
9	Beige	0.4%	1.6%	-73.8%
10	Orange	0.3%	0.2%	2.5%
11	Yellow	0.1%	0.3%	-59.4%
12	Gold	0.0%	2.3%	-98.1%
13	Purple	0.0%	0.7%	-94.7%

SWIPE

Source: iSeeCars

A few brave souls fought the blahs by opting for blue (9.1%), red (7%), and green (2.2%). Remaining colors are basically insignificant as brown and beige had a 0.4% market share in 2025, while orange followed at 0.1%.

A number of once reasonably popular colors have faded away over the past three decades, as gold and purple are down nearly 100%. Brown and green saw declines of around 84%, while beige dropped 73.8%.

Automakers Keep Adding Colors, Yet Eight In Ten New Cars Are Grayscale

iSeeCars

On the flip side, gray saw a huge 528.4% increase, while black jumped 64.5%. White even got 16.7% more popular, despite already being the most picked hue in 1996.

The study from iSeeCars also found the percentage of grayscale trucks jumped from 43.4% in 1996 to 83.5% last year. That was the “largest move toward grayscale colors of any vehicle category.”

iSeeCars

Sports cars were the most colorful vehicles around as only 63.6% of them were grayscale last year. Blue had a 15.5% market share, while red clocked in at 10.8%. Even purple had a 1.8% stake.

While the study doesn’t say why colorful cars have fallen by the wayside, a number of possible explanations have surfaced over the years. One of the most plausible is that grayscale colors are widely accepted by consumers, so dealerships order a majority of vehicles in boring hues. Needless to say, it’s far easier to find a buyer for a black or white truck versus something more exotic like green or purple, so this clearly plays a significant role too.

Most Popular Truck Colors by Market Share

Rank	Color	2025	1996	% Change
1	White	33.6%	27.0%	24.6%
2	Black	23.4%	9.7%	141.8%
3	Gray	19.2%	3.4%	464.9%
4	Red	7.6%	21.4%	-64.7%
5	Silver	7.3%	3.3%	118.4%
6	Blue	6.3%	12.6%	-50.3%
7	Green	1.0%	14.5%	-92.8%
8	Brown	0.9%	3.7%	-76.2%
9	Orange	0.4%	0.0%	681.6%
10	Beige	0.3%	1.0%	-66.5%
11	Yellow	0.0%	0.2%	-93.6%
12	Gold	0.0%	1.5%	-99.5%
13	Purple	0.0%	0.3%	-99.3%
Grayscale colors*		83.5%	43.4%	92.4%
Non-grayscale colors		16.5%	55.3%	-70.2%

SWIPE

Most Popular SUV Colors by Market Share

Rank	Color	2025	1996	% Change
1	White	25.1%	22.2%	12.8%
2	Black	23.4%	14.5%	61.5%
3	Gray	21.9%	4.0%	444.7%
4	Blue	9.5%	8.8%	8.4%
5	Silver	8.9%	3.1%	189.7%
6	Red	6.8%	17.5%	-61.0%
7	Green	2.9%	21.3%	-86.4%
8	Brown	0.5%	3.8%	-86.7%
9	Beige	0.5%	1.7%	-73.2%
10	Orange	0.3%	0.3%	-10.0%
11	Yellow	0.1%	0.2%	-28.4%
12	Gold	0.1%	1.3%	-95.7%
13	Purple	0.0%	0.4%	-94.6%
Grayscale colors*		79.3%	43.8%	80.9%
Non-grayscale colors		20.7%	55.2%	-62.6%

SWIPE

Most Popular Passenger Car Colors by Market Share

Rank	Color	2025	1996	% Change
1	Gray	28.4%	3.8%	652.1%
2	Black	23.7%	17.5%	35.0%
3	White	21.2%	17.8%	19.2%
4	Blue	9.9%	9.1%	9.3%
5	Silver	7.4%	11.2%	-34.3%
6	Red	7.1%	20.2%	-64.7%
7	Green	1.0%	10.1%	-89.6%
8	Beige	0.5%	2.1%	-78.0%
9	Orange	0.2%	0.4%	-41.8%
10	Yellow	0.2%	0.4%	-50.4%
11	Brown	0.1%	2.3%	-94.1%
12	Purple	0.1%	1.1%	-88.7%
13	Gold	0.0%	3.3%	-98.7%
Grayscale colors*		80.7%	50.3%	60.4%
Non-grayscale colors		19.3%	48.9%	-60.6%

SWIPE

Most Popular Sports Car Colors by Market Share

Rank	Color	2025	1996	% Change
1	Gray	21.2%	3.0%	598.0%
2	Black	20.9%	20.5%	1.9%
3	White	16.6%	14.1%	17.4%
4	Blue	15.5%	9.9%	56.7%
5	Red	10.8%	23.4%	-54.1%
6	Silver	4.9%	17.4%	-71.9%
7	Green	4.5%	7.5%	-40.3%
8	Yellow	2.3%	1.0%	142.5%
9	Purple	1.8%	1.2%	52.1%
10	Orange	0.8%	0.6%	38.6%
11	Brown	0.2%	0.4%	-60.9%
12	Gold	0.2%	0.3%	-37.2%
13	Beige	0.1%	0.3%	-44.1%
Grayscale colors*		63.6%	55.0%	15.5%
Non-grayscale colors		36.2%	44.5%	-18.7%