BASF's New Automotive Color Trends Highlight the Digital World

Future mobile technologies and human needs are inspiring BASF's 2018-19 automotive color trends. BASF's "Keep it Real" collection bridges the digital world with the physical world. As innovations such as artificial intelligence, autonomous driving and robotic industrialization take hold, the return to the human factor—people's needs and emotions—is becoming increasingly important. Building on this observation, designers at BASF's Coatings Division transformed these insights into a collection of 65 colors for automotive surfaces.

Dark Colors, Blue Tones and Complex Effects Represent Technology Being Everywhere at All Times

Advances in digitalization are making technology increasingly less visible and more intertwined with reality. Augmented reality applications and smart devices that simplify daily life are merging the real world with the digital world. While people spend more time on online platforms, trying to establish their presence on social media compared to the real world, the omnipresence of technology is also reflected in Automotive Color Trends. Gray and blue tones form the focal point of BASF's new collection, while achromatic colors combine with complex effects that create colorful and natural accents and represent the merger of the real and virtual worlds. Blue tones that reflect the color of screens and digital light emerge as highly saturated colors. The collection also features natural textures and color effects that symbolize the search for human qualities in the virtual world.

Changing Functions—New Mobility Concepts Will Influence Color Choices

Vehicle sharing concepts, ride-hailing services and autonomous driving will transform the function of automobiles from personally owned possessions to more of a form of public transportation. In automobiles designed for sharing, natural colors such as white, gray and black will play an important role. The trend collection demonstrates how detailed textures and mixed effects make each color truly unique. Additionally, BASF is addressing future mobility through continued development of functional colors. Select colors in the collection contain paint technology that prevents temperature increases inside the vehicle. Other innovations include state-of-the-art functionality without compromising aesthetics, advanced LiDAR (technology that uses laser pulses to determine the distance of an object or surface) and enhanced reflectivity for detectability.