Grey is UK’s most popular new car colour

January 18, 2023

More than one in four new cars sold in 2022 was painted grey – but green posted the biggest volume growth, with a 74.2 percent uplift.

While grey was the most popular colour for the fifth year running, a total of 31,220 new green cars were sold in 2022: almost 13,300 more than the previous year.

Fittingly, almost a quarter of them were ‘green’ in another way: they could be plugged in.

However, the British new car market overall remains largely monochromatic.

Adding to the 25.7 percent of grey new cars (that’s a staggering 415,199 cars sold last year), black paint took 20.1 percent of sales, while white represented 16.7 percent.

This means more than six in 10 new cars sold in 2022 were either grey, black or white.

Silver on the slide

Silver was the top paint colour in Britain for 12 straight years, between 2000 and 2011. In 2022, though, it posted its lowest market share in more than two decades; just 6.1 percent of new cars were silver. Indeed, both blue and red are now more popular than silver.

Green, meanwhile, surged into seventh place in the new car colours chart, with a 1.9 percent market share. Some 1.2 percent of new cars sold last year were orange, with yellow on 0.7 percent and bronze rounding out the top 10 with a 0.5 percent share.

And the least popular colours? Maroon, pink and cream – combined, they account for less than one percent of new cars, with pink posting its lowest market share since 2009.

“Car colour choice theoretically proclaims something about who we are as drivers,” said SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes. “Buying a new car today comes with many possibilities to customise your vehicle to match.

“While the most popular shade remain unchanged for 2022, for those looking to ensure their vehicle stands out from the crowd, there remains a huge variety of colour choices from across the rainbow available to suit every character.”