Colour
Newest Plastic Parts Color Trends: Green, Blue and Warm Neutrals
Trending colours for appliance and automotive plastic parts in new year: green and grey rising in cars, blue at the centre of appliance palettes, warm neutrals and enduring matte black and white with RAL suggestions.
Published on 6 min read
The colour of plastic parts from vacuum cleaner housings and washer panels to mirror caps and car trim is the first thing a customer sees. The automotive and appliance industries publish colour and material reports every year, and those reports directly shape the colours of plastic parts. Here are the key signals for new year.
Automotive: green and grey move forward
According to BASF Coatings' Color Report, published in January, green showed the largest increase among chromatic colours worldwide in 2025, while grey grew significantly among achromatic shades. In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the report describes a shift from silver toward green.
BASF's yearly forecast collection, Driving the Proxy, named a blue called Tesseract Blue as the key colour for EMEA and Phygital Magnetar for Asia Pacific. Such trends reach automotive plastic parts mirror caps, spoilers, trim a few years later.
Home appliances: colour confidence, with neutrals that last
Two currents run through new year appliance reports. On one side, earthy tones such as olive, sage and mocha appear alongside jewel tones in red, blue and green, and KitchenAid highlighted the deep green Juniper in its new trends report. SMEG USA named Moonlight, a warm, earthy neutral, as its new Color of the Year a move away from the cool greys of recent years.
On the other side, UK buying group Sirius notes that despite strong colour confidence in new year, demand for matte black and white appliances remains firm. A new year global appliance colour report from China also put blue at the centre of the year's palette, from deep, energetic blues to calm, meditative ones.
For plastic parts, a trend colour only works if it looks exactly the same on every part of the product.
RAL suggestions for plastic parts
Timeless neutrals
- White: RAL 9003 and RAL 9016 for appliance housings.
- Black: RAL 9005 in matte or piano gloss.
- Grey: RAL 7035 for industrial parts and RAL 7016 for a dark, modern look.
Rising colours
- Sage and olive greens close to RAL 6021 and RAL 6013.
- Calm and deep blues such as RAL 5014 and RAL 5011.
- Warm neutrals and creams close to RAL 1013 and RAL 1015.
Technical tips for choosing colours on plastic
- Parts in different materials (e.g. ABS and PP) usually look slightly different with moulded-in colour; painting removes that mismatch.
- Choose gloss level with the colour one RAL code looks very different in matte and gloss.
- Check the colour in daylight and in the lighting where the product will be used.
- Approve a painted sample on the real part before production.
Torn between a few colours? Send us a photo of the part and the finished product on WhatsApp and we'll suggest suitable RAL codes.
