This year's color collection bridges creative inspiration and tangible action through sustainable, innovative colors that reflect global shifts and emotional needs.
· This year's color collection explores how to translate creative inspiration into tangible action, building a bridge between ideas, emotions, and reality.
· Sustainability and innovation continue to play a key role, enhancing the visual depth and dimensionality of colors.
· The key colors from three regions reflect distinct global shifts and the emotional needs within this evolution.
The color experts at BASF Coatings have recently released the *2025-2026 Automotive Color Trends Report*. Under the theme "Driving the Proxy," this year's collection delves into how creative inspiration and diverse influences originate from all around us, and how they act as a "proxy" or representative, dynamically shaping design decisions within the automotive industry.
Sustainability and innovation remain crucial in developing this year's color trends. Some colors in the collection utilize renewable or recycled raw materials, while innovative technologies, such as color-flop pigments and liquid-metal effect surfaces, enhance the visual layering and complexity of the colors. Overall, the Driving the Proxy collection presents a series of sophisticated near-solid shades, characterized by their silky-smooth surfaces and subtle shimmer. The color direction leans towards warmer, more emotionally resonant tones – with light greyish lilac, rich brown, and layered reds being key highlights.
Global automotive manufacturers can use BASF Coatings' trend insights on these colors to begin planning their future designs. Some of these colors are expected to be available on production vehicles in as little as two years. Among the 45 colors in this year's Driving the Proxy collection, BASF's color experts have highlighted three regional key colors. These reflect culturally and technologically specific regional transformations:
Europe, Middle East, and Africa – EMEA TESSERACT BLUE: A fluid dimension in an expansive blue
EMEA TESSERACT BLUE is a vibrant blue shade based on high-end interference pigments, which shimmer with both green and purple highlights. Inspired by geometric abstraction, this color challenges visual perception and reinterprets depth by creating a multi-dimensional surface experience.
Mark Gutjahr, Global Head of Automotive Color Design at BASF, stated: "We observe intertwined dynamic forces, such as climate change and social fragmentation, creating fissures – both real and symbolic – and reshaping social norms. In such times, EMEA TESSERACT BLUE symbolizes a shift in perspective, what we call 'filling the fissures,' allowing light and structure to shape the car's surface into a harmonious vision of the future."
Asia Pacific – PHYGITAL MAGNETAR: A calm surface amidst accelerating innovation
PHYGITAL MAGNETAR is a warm silver with bright white highlights, featuring a flowing, liquid-metal luster. It precisely captures the region's duality: on one hand, an relentless drive for innovation, and on the other, a profound desire for tranquility and clarity. Utilizing advanced two-layer coating technology, PHYGITAL MAGNETAR bridges the physical and digital dimensions, presenting a quiet yet expressive textured surface.
Chiharu Matsuhara, Head of Automotive Color Design, Asia Pacific at BASF, said: "Our inspiration stemmed from the ongoing discussion in the Asia Pacific region about 'innovation fatigue.' PHYGITAL MAGNETAR, through its calm yet expressive paint finish, subtly creates a space where innovation becomes seamless and imperceptible, allowing design to once again define the future."
The Americas – AUXETIC NEUTRAL: When neutrality becomes a statement of identity
AUXETIC NEUTRAL is a rich, culturally resonant brown that reinterprets neutrality as a bold style statement. Its clean shimmer adds vibrancy and depth, creating a visual effect that combines subtle texture with multi-dimensional form. This color draws dual inspiration from both the fashion industry and industrial design.
Gutjahr explained: "Current design trends are shifting from individual creation to collective co-creation. Neutrality, and even 'anonymous creation,' are becoming inclusive spaces where multiple voices can coexist and build identity. AUXETIC NEUTRAL reflects the qualities desired in this era: building a distinct and memorable identity while remaining open."
BASF Coatings' Color Expertise
Each year, BASF Coatings' color experts conduct in-depth analyses of global trends across sectors like fashion, consumer behavior, technology, and nature. These insights are integrated into the Automotive Color Trends Report series, providing direction for innovative concepts in color, surface, and texture.
Global automotive manufacturers leverage these forward-looking insights, combined with BASF Coatings' expertise in digital and visual color tools, for the design and planning of future vehicle models. Bursting Blue, a color introduced in a previous BASF color trend report, serves as a successful example – it has since become one of the mainstream colors seen on roads today.
Key Color EMEA TESSERACT BLUE on AUVOT Sportif 
Key Color EMEA TESSERACT BLUE in detail 
Key Color EMEA TESSERACT BLUE in detail 
Key Color EMEA TESSERACT BLUE in detail 
Key Color Asia Pacific PHYGITAL MAGNETAR on AUVOT MEA 
Key Color Asia Pacific PHYGITAL MAGNETAR in detail 
Key Color Asia Pacific PHYGITAL MAGNETAR in detail 
Key Color Asia Pacific PHYGITAL MAGNETAR in detail 
Key Color Americas AUXETIC NEUTRAL on AUVOT 
Key Color Americas AUXETIC NEUTRAL in detail 
Key Color Americas AUXETIC NEUTRAL in detail 
Key Color Americas AUXETIC NEUTRAL in detail 
