New car colours 2024

Saturday 18 January, 2025

Britain’s love affair with grey-coloured cars shows no signs of waning, as the hue proved the most popular new car colour for the seventh consecutive year, according to the latest figures published today by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). More than a quarter (27.8%) of all new car registrations in 2024 were grey – its best ever share – as 543,464 grey cars joined British roads, up 6.7% on the previous year.¹

Black ranked as the second shade of choice, while blue moved up to third place – the colour’s first appearance in the top three since 2010.² This change marks the first variation to the top three and the first non-monochromatic colour to enter the podium in seven years. The top three represented 64.5% of all new cars joining UK roads in 2024.³ White dropped to fourth, falling by -7.2%, while red held firm in fifth place but recorded a -4.1% drop, reaching its lowest market share since 2003.⁴

While 64.5% of new cars were also grey, black and white, a choice of 93 different colours meant that there was ample opportunity for every preference to be met. Green and yellow saw rises across the top 10, increasing by 27.7% and 0.5% respectively. At the other end of the scale, pink, maroon and turquoise vehicles together accounted for just 747 registrations in total.

Reflecting the growing popularity of ‘green’ powered cars – with battery electric vehicles (BEVs) accounting for almost one in five registrations last year – green-coloured vehicles also continued their growth, with 68,230 registered, more than double than in 2022 and the highest volume since 2004.⁵ However, grey was still the favoured choice among BEV buyers with 95,463 reaching the road.

Grey also reigned supreme across most vehicle segments, including the three bestsellers – dual purpose, supermini, and lower medium. Black was the shade of choice for executive cars (34.2%) and luxury saloons (42.1%), while white remained the top choice for the multi-purpose segment (25.7%). Grey and black were the top two choices for both fleet and private buyers, however, while white ranked third for businesses, private consumers added a splash more colour with blue.

Once more, the British regions and UK counties were unanimous in their preference for grey motors – making the tone their preference. Black was the second most popular colour across the majority of regions, bar the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands where white was number two.

Greater London was home to the most green vehicles registered in the UK, with 3,821 sold. Berkshire, meanwhile, proved the best place to play the ‘yellow car’ game, registering the highest volume of cars in the colour (779), while simultaneously ranking as the top spot for red motors, with 8,294 registered.

Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive, said,

While 2024 saw more new car buyers go green, with a record number of EVs reaching the road, the ‘face’ of the market remains familiar, with grey and black proving perennially popular. While manufacturers strive to ensure every driver can have their pick of a vast choice of paint colours and personalisation options to suit their individual tastes, it seems UK car buyers’ preferences remain steadfastly monochrome.

Car colours facts:

• The nation’s least favourite car colour was pink, down on 2023 by 31.0%, with just 145 registrations of the tint.
• 10,754 buyers opted for orange, down -35.5% on 2023, with West Yorkshire home to the majority at 719 units.
• Registrations of green cars recorded the fastest rate of growth since 2004 up more than a quarter (27.7%).
• Yellow-coloured vehicles ranked eighth, marking the colour’s first time in the top 10 since 2016.
• Red recorded its lowest market share since the millennium,⁶ with just seven in every 100 buyers speccing the colour – compared with six in 50 when it was at peak popularity in 2014.
• Black recorded its highest volume since 2019, with 423,397 cars joining the road in 2024.
• Turquoise proved the most spurned colour, dropping from 3,627 registrations in 2023 to just 362 last year – marking the colour’s steepest recorded decline and its lowest performance since 2002.

Notes to editors

1 Registered grey cars, 2023: 509,193 units
2 Top three coloured cars, 2010: Black, silver and blue
3 Grey, black and blue registered volumes, 2024: 1,258,789 units
4 Registered red cars, 2023: 142,179 units; Red market share, 2003: 0.7% or 243,270 registrations
5 Green registered cars, 2004:118,633 units; Green registered cars, 2022: 31,220 units
6 Red car market share, 2000: 10.8%