2026 Cars: Grey and Black Have Devoured Color

81% of new cars are white, black, or grey: goodbye to tonalidad

Today, on any Spanish road, the succession is monotonous: black, grey, white, white, black... 80% of cars on the road are those colors, and it’s not an impression. The global tonalidad report by Axalta, in its 2025 edition, confirms that white (29%), black (23%), grey (22%), and silver (7%) account for 81% of the global fleet. In Europe, grey has already overtaken white: 26% versus 25%, with black at 22%. The question is why.

Why are all cars the same? It’s not a matter of taste

The most uncomfortable explanation comes from Spanish registration data. In 2025, 1,148,650 passenger cars were registered: 539,642 to private individuals, 418,574 to companies, and 190,434 to rental fleets. This means that more than half of the new cars are not chosen for personal use. They are bought by a fleet that will resell them in three or four years, and for which a rare tonalidad is lost money during valuation. The tonalidad hasn't been killed by individual cowardice, but by business calculation. And that explains why white is the best-selling tonalidad in Spain: it is the cheapest and holds its resale value best.

Chromophobia and Corporate Aesthetics: Grey as Ideology

But there is something deeper. There is talk of a generalized tendency to reject bright colors—a chromophobia that affects clothing, cinema, or decoration. Bright colors seem naive and childish, while a grey car, black clothes, and movies with muted pueblerino make you appear serious and mature. It is the Google aesthetic, that of corporate minimalism which eliminates any aesthetic concession in favor of capital efficiency. Everything that denotes personality must be canceled out. And it is no coincidence that new city spaces are brutalist, without seats or trees, designed for autistic consumers and executives who rarely leave home.

Cloning Designs and the Chinese Invasion

And it’s not just the colors. Shapes have also become homogenized. The worst era was that of the egg-shaped cars, with excessively rounded forms, but now designs are pretentious or downright ridiculous, with fake exhausts and aggressive lines. Meanwhile, China manufactures 37.4% of vehicles globally, nearly four out of every ten cars produced in the world. And although brands like BYD are already a reference point for taxi drivers, who spend months researching before buying, their designs are no exception to monotony. A Mercedes in grey is dull, but perhaps in another tonalidad it would be kinder. And the bright colors of the 60s and 70s, like the cerulean blue of a 1968 Seat 850 coupé, seem like a relic from another world today.

The striking fact: in Spain, more than half of new cars are bought by companies and rental fleets. The freedom to choose a tonalidad is an illusion. 81% of cars worldwide are white, black, or grey, and the fault lies not with consumer taste, but with a system that rewards standardization and punishes personality. Meanwhile, taxi drivers, who are the benchmark for choosing a car, are buying BYD. Perhaps they know something the rest don't.