Axalta Coating Systems, the company behind the Cromax, Spies Hecker and Standox refinish brands, has announced the release of StarLite, its 2018 Automotive Colour of the Year.

The company says that StarLite is a modern, technology-savvy, premium colour for vehicles of today and tomorrow. Borne from Axalta’s ChromaDyne line of colour coats developed for automotive OEMs, StarLite is a light and reflective hue that uses Axalta’s tri-coat process which is formulated with synthetic pearl flakes to create an eye catching pearlescent effect. It is a sophisticated colour that is designed to look great on all vehicle sizes while also providing functional benefits.

Nancy Lockhart, Axalta Global Color Marketing Manager says, “From a popularity perspective, there will never be a better year to highlight StarLite as an automotive pacesetter. While we see white cars everywhere, the rise in popularity of pearlescent pigments that reflect light underscores StarLite’s role as a modern, luxury colour.”

Axalta’s recently released 2017 Global Automotive Color Popularity Report, which documents vehicle colour trends by geography, reported white as the number one colour in the world for the seventh consecutive year. Globally, nearly 40% of buyers chose white in 2017, which is up two full percentage points from 2016. White surpassed black, the second most popular colour globally by 23 percent. Pearlescent white, the category that includes StarLite, grew four percentage points to 13% overall in 2017.

Nancy added, “Highly reflective colours can contribute to the functionality of driverless vehicles because lighter colours, like StarLite, are more easily detectable by LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) systems.” 

Researchers at the Berkeley Lab’s Energy Technologies Area recently showed how a vehicle’s colour affects fuel economy and emissions. Berkeley Lab’s tests found that using white or similar paint instead of black paint could enable manufacturers to downsize a car’s air conditioner and raise fuel economy by 2.0%, decrease CO2 emissions by 1.9% and reduce other automotive emissions by about 1%.

Axalta will kick off the celebration of StarLite during the 2018 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) Preview Days in Detroit, Michigan.