7:57 am, June 27, 2023
For the UK’s new car industry, recent years have been dominated by 50 Shades of Grey.
No we’re not accusing anybody of sloping off to read erotic fiction, we are referring to the fact that grey has been the most popular new car colour for five years on the spin.
In 2022, grey accounted for 25.7 per cent of all new cars sold, followed by black (20.1 per cent) and white (16.7 per cent).
With that in mind, you might think that carmakers would be falling over themselves to produce more grey cars in as many shades as possible but one brand is seeing things differently.
Fiat has taken the surprising step of stopping production of grey-coloured cars as it wants to make customers choose more colourful shades.
The outfit is keen to change that as it wants to be more ‘distinctive’ with bosses saying that Italy is known as ‘the land of colours’.
They therefore want Fiat to be recognised in the same way and will no longer be producing grey vehicles as a result.
Olivier Francois, chief executive officer at Fiat, said: ‘We’ve broken the rules: and decided to stop the production of Fiat grey cars.
‘This is challenging and disruptive and it is aimed to further reinforce Fiat’s leadership as the brand of joy, colours, and optimism. Italy is the country of colours and, starting from today, our cars too.’
To mark the announcement, Fiat’s CEO took the seat in an example of the firm’s new 600e crossover, painted grey, before it was craned into a vat of orange paint.
In the video, Francois can be seen putting the window of the car up before it’s lowered fully into a huge pot of paint, only to be lifted out once again covered completely in orange.
Though Fiat isn’t going all the way by phasing out white and black paint colours, it does offer a particularly colourful palette, including Sicilian Orange, Italia Blue and Passion Red.
What do a grey Fiat, our CEO and a huge can of orange paint have in common? Apparently… a lot!
In Lerici, a small town in Liguria, Our CEO Olivier François decided to confirm once again that Fiat is the brand of colours: we present to you Operation No Grey! pic.twitter.com/MNb0WbtHS2— Fiat (@fiat) June 26, 2023
Fiat isn’t the only car firm that is trying to persuade customers to choose more interesting colours.
Kia and Peugeot, for example, each offer bright shades – including red, yellow and greens – as the free, no-cost colours, therefore making customers spend extra if they want to have their cars painted in a less interesting shade.
