DuPont knows a thing or two about car colors, being a leading supplier of paint and coatings to the global auto industry since Fuscia was officially recognized as a legitimate hue. The company has just released its 2008 Automotive Color Popularity Report and White has retained its crown as this continent's most popular car color, though not without qualification. White scored 16 percent on the report while Silver, which ran the tables on every other color for six years prior to 2007, scored 17 percent. However, if you add the 4 percent score of White Effect, or White Pearl, to just plain old White's score, you get a winning score of 20%. The "Effect" in White Effect refers to special pigments added to paint that gives it a pearl or iridescent quality. This allows some differentiation between your white BMW and your neighbor's white Lexus. Black and Black Effect scored 11 and 6 percent, respectively, which means that U.S. citizens have pretty boring tastes when it comes to the color palette of their cars. Not to worry though, as DuPont suggests that White winning two years in a row suggests a "palette cleansing" that may precede a new color trend, one that is hopefully a little more exciting than the monochromatic machines we favor today.
It's debatable whether or not now is the right time to make changes in the way our cars are made, with some believing that Detroit should follow the path it's already on and others claiming there couldn't be a better time to make major sweeping changes. Count DuPont head Chad Holliday among the latter. Holliday's so-called "Detroit Project" would challenge American automakers to introduce a new "Car of the Future" that would achieve 75 miles per gallon and run on butanol – an alcohol fuel that DuPont just so happens to market itself.
Regardless of whether DuPont stands to benefit from this project, there are a few major hurdles to overcome, not the least of which is an initial $5 billion investment at a time when the Detroit 3 are asking for many times that from the government just to stay in business. We also see problems getting proposed collaborators such as Intel, Microsoft, Dell, Boeing and Google all working on the same page. Schools such as MIT, the Georgia Tech, and the University of Michigan could also be involved, according to Holliday. No problem, right?
Getting an automobile to run on butanol isn't a problem, it's been done over and over again. Yes, it is a cleaner fuel that may be a better choice overall than ethanol, but coming from the head of a company with a vested interest comes off as a bit disingenuous. It also reminds us of something we heard the other day...
Automotive paint supplier PPG says the color of tomorrow's car is blue. According to Jane Harrington, PPG's manager of color styling, "It's one of those colors that complements vehicle shapes... It's a globally acceptable color. It doesn't have any bad connotations." The company studies trends in fashion, interior design, and consumer products to predict the tastes of fickle consumers. PPG isn't the only company predicting more blue sheetmetal on our roads and highways. An April report by chemicals giant DuPont also predicted a resurgence in the color, adding it was influenced by ecological concepts such as the sky and water. Consumers in 2008 apparently haven't caught on to the new "blue" trend yet. So far, 20 percent of the cars sold this year have been silver ("A neutral color that works on just about any car," says Harrington). White is second (18 percent), followed by black (17 percent) and red (13 percent). Although blue may be the new green, most consumers will still stick with black, white, and silver -- core colors that are always offered on nearly every vehicle.
The duPont Registry has listed the best cars in eleven categories, and taking the cake for 2009 Car of the Year is the Bugatti Veyron Gran Sport. Other winners, like the ZR1 for Bang for the Buck and Continental Flying Spur Speed for Performance Sedan, make up the usual murderers' row of marques and models. What isn't usual is that in just one year, the total price of all the cars jumped 200% to $4.5 million because of a certain Bug and a Koenigsegg, and that the total horsepower climbed 57%, from 4,276 to 6,723. Oddly, though, duPont says that the era of hi-po supercars may have peaked, and things could be going green – but neither the list nor the facts on the ground bear it out. Of the eleven cars, only the Tesla and the Ronn Motors Scorpion could be considered green, and one of them doesn't even exist yet. As for the rest, we don't know what the opposite of green is, but none of the nine other cars are expected to have less horsepower in their follow-up guises. Which means there's still time to get some thrills in, as long as you've got at least $110,000 to spend...
Each year, DuPont does a study on color trends in the automotive industry. As the leader in supplying finishes for both the new and aftermarket auto realms, this is the kind of information that the company needs to know. Thankfully, DuPont's researchers always share their findings with the rest of us, and last year it was reported that white had taken over from silver as the color in which to be seen. This year, the pigment company decided to shake things up with a mid-year check on the multi-hued situation around the world, and it seems that blue, which is also the new green, is making a bit of a run at adding some pizazz that's been missing from simple achromatic white. Interestingly, the masses seem to be reacting just a little bit to the economic downturn that this country has been facing, choosing simple solids instead of more flashy hues. Perhaps those downers are just lacking in self-worth.
