GOING GREEN

Axalta has announced its 2021 globaautomotive colour of the year—a striking green bearing the name Electrolight.

ElectroLight is an expressively refreshing green-yellow hue inspired by bold, contemporary flavours that echo style, energy and flair. The colour invokes a blend of sport design elements with functional performance and offers versatility when combined with two-tone charcoal colour accents, or matte finished on a variety of mobility solutions.

“Offering innovative products that are ahead of the curve is what we live and breathe every day at Axalta,” said Hadi Awada, senior vicepresident at Axalta. “ElectroLight is another step towards illuminating a path for a green future for all types of vehicles, including autonomous vehicles. Formulated with mobility-sensing technology in mind, ElectroLight combines a passion for individualisation with coating science into a functional, expressive and dynamic colour.”

ElectroLight is formulated with reflective properties that make it highly visible to light detection and ranging (LiDAR) systems, while it’s layer structure and pigment content are easily transmissible by radio detection and ranging (RADAR) systems.

Fully autonomous vehicles are closer than ever to becoming a reality and will increasingly rely on LiDAR and RADAR technology to see and to interact with the world around them. ElectroLight meets industry safety standards and improves the performance of both types of systems, making it a stand-out colour option in both trend and technology, according to Axalta’s press release.

“Our 2021 colour evokes sustainability, happiness and safety. ElectroLight is at the forefront of today’s colour trends, while also anticipating emerging technology advances. Consumers are looking for a breakout colour and ElectroLight manifests this while bringing a progressive approach to automotive styling and design,” said Nancy Lockhart, global product manager of colour at Axalta.

While Axalta’s recently released 2020 Global Automotive Color Popularity Report still shows that white remains the most frequently purchased automotive colour globally, interest in automotive colours with a more customised and personalised look is becoming increasingly desired by consumers.

The report, revealed in early 2021, showed that as of today, 38 percent of drivers own a white vehicle, 19 percent sport black vehicles while 15 percent own a gray vehicle. Silver continues to be on the decline in all regions and its popularity is now in the single digits at nine percent. Black holds steady year-over-year and remains a favourite in luxury vehicles.

The tasteful gray hue has increased by two percentage points worldwide and is at a 10-year high, said Axalta.