ON VOLUDE – the theme of BASF’s 2023-2024 Automotive Color Trends collection
Each year, designers for BASF’s Coatings division create a new collection of colors to inspire automotive designers around the globe. This year, non-human intelligence was a strong driver for the creation of the ON VOLUDE collection from Automotive Color Trends by BASF for 2023-2024.
When BASF’s designers looked at what their trend signals were telling them, they realized it’s time for a color update, as the classic automobile color wheel has had its day. Non-classic automotive hues emerged, propelling colors through a series of shifts reflecting a positive mood, with a focus on lighter shades and the exploration of new, expressive color spaces.
ON VOLUDE provides exciting colors that also adopt an increasing focus on sustainability and functionality. As customers rely on the BASF collection to design automotive colors for their future models, one will see the new direction on the road or in the driveway in the next three to five model years.
BASF also leads the world in the global tools it uses to create our designs and share them with automotive designers. By using BASF’s AUROOM® - a digital platform providing digital color - speed and exchange is accelerated, and we eliminate the need to mix batches of paint, spray them on various materials, then ship those materials around the globe. It's faster, more efficient, and helps reach our sustainability goals.
Welcome to ON VOLUDE by BASF!
The AMERICAS – Colors evolving in their functionality
The Americas palette seeks optimism and divergence that celebrates possibilities in all modes of art and design. The color spaces are evolving in their functionality while building in excitement. The collection features softer hues, minimized textures and subtle moves that aspire toward future goals near and far. Colors in the Americas contribute to cooling effects in the vehicle with solar reflectance, work with sensor-based mobility concepts, and explore more approaches with responsible raw material sourcing.
Key Color ZENOMENON
A “grass-roots” shift is enlightened through an aspiring bio-based development engineered to bring to light the phenomenon of color purely perceived as the result of light dancing between microscopic structures, long observed within the natural world. In this case, what mimics a transparent blue mid-coat is actually crystal clear and free of traditional colorants offering fresh avenues toward both conscious and customized design. The Americas key color ZENOMENON is a next-gen novelty that will pull through with invigorated structure and recalibrated potential, bolstering a path to a brighter future.
In this year’s collection, red leaning pastels and mid-tones are replaced by restorative yellow and green effects suggesting renewal. The connection complements both grounded color spaces and otherworldly escapes. It shows evolving mindsets in automotive design.
Asia Pacific – Realistic approaches to sustainable concepts
For ON VOLUDE, designers in Asia Pacific (APAC) explored and enriched the important color spaces for whites and grays, while adventurous new color spaces like shimmering green pastel and fluorescent red offer new expressions to meet the growing individuality of car buyers in APAC. The collection shows realistic approaches to sustainable materials, sustainable processes, and a diversity of sustainable concepts and effects.
Key color ELECTRONIC CITRUS
The key color for Asia Pacific is a light green hue that shows the region’s positive attitude and growth even during difficult times. ELECTRONIC CITRUS reflects this atmosphere in a fluorescent color in the light green space with an airy blue highlight. As Augmented Reality devices become more familiar in our daily lives, we will see more layered views; one is real, and the other is projected by AR with luminous signals. ELECTRONIC CITRUS picks up on those signals and amplifies them.
This palette can create amazing color harmonies that are futuristic, modern and playful interactions between color and effect combinations. These sustainable concepts are reimagined in a more realistic way, boosting BASF’s leadership in sustainability.
EMEA – Exploring features beyond color position
The palette for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) puts a highlight on bright beige colors. Pastels also play an important role, introducing interesting non-automotive color positions into automotive design. As seen throughout the ON VOLUDE collection, colors in EMEA explore features far beyond color position. They add sustainable, recycled raw materials, LiDAR and RADAR compatible concepts, and haptic surfaces.
Key Color PREDICTOR
Non-human intelligence will demand more openness to technology, and at the same time more awareness of human competencies and needs. The EMEA key color connects the human and non-human dialog in a near-neutral, soft color position. PREDICTOR tells us something about the importance of the human factor in the future by adding a sharp, warm sparkle to the matte surface.
Expressive colors reflect our will to communicate and speak up. When we bring non-automotive colors into the mix, we broaden that conversation even further into new and exciting color spaces.
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