Short answer
Yes: a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory experiment found that a silver car's cabin air stayed about 5–6 °C cooler than an identical black car's after standing in the sun, and modelled small fuel and CO2 savings from reflective paint. On dirt there is no published study; the reasoning is simply contrast — dust and road film are mid-grey-brown, so they show least on mid-toned silver, grey and beige and most on black and very dark colours.
Researchers in the Heat Island Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, led by Ronnen Levinson and published in Applied Energy in 2011, parked otherwise identical black and silver compact sedans in the sun and measured the air temperature at breath height. Raising the shell's solar reflectance by about 0.5 — roughly the difference between black and silver — lowered the soaked cabin air temperature by about 5–6 °C. They then simulated the air-conditioning effort needed to cool the cabin to 25 °C within 30 minutes on a standard drive cycle: the silver car needed about 13% less cooling capacity. The work was funded by the California Energy Commission as part of an effort to develop 'cool coloured' paints.
Feeding the smaller air-conditioning load into a vehicle simulation, the team estimated that a white or silver shell (solar reflectance about 0.6) would use about 1.9% less fuel than a black one (about 0.05) on the test cycle — about 0.21 litres per 100 km and 4.9 g of CO2 per km. A 'cool' dark colour engineered to reflect near-infrared light (reflectance about 0.35) would save about 1.1%. These are simulation results that assume savings scale in a straight line with reflectance; the authors note that real-world emissions are usually higher than standard cycles, so savings could be larger, but they were not measured on the road.
About half of the sun's energy arrives as near-infrared light that our eyes cannot see. A paint's visible colour therefore does not fully predict how hot it gets: two paints that look the same black can absorb very different amounts of infrared, depending on the pigment. That is the principle behind 'cool colours' — dark pigments that absorb visible light but reflect infrared — and it is why the Berkeley work compared reflectance rather than colour names. Glass matters too: sunlight entering through the windows heats the seats and dashboard directly, which is why tinted glazing and sunshades help a parked car whatever its colour.
The same physics applies to roofs and façades; cool pigments were developed first for roofing and then adapted for cars.
No published study has measured how visible dirt is on different car colours, so the rest of this page is reasoning, not data. Road dust, dried rain spots and pollen are mostly light grey-brown. They contrast most with black and very dark blues and greys, where every spot and film shows, and least with mid-tone silver, light grey, champagne and beige. White hides dust well but shows dark road grime and tar low on the body. Black also shows fine clearcoat scratches most, because the scattered white light from each scratch stands out against a dark ground; the same scratches are near-invisible on silver.
| Shell | Solar reflectance | Fuel use change | CO2 change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black (reference) | about 0.05 | – | – |
| Cool-coloured (dark, infrared-reflective) | about 0.35 | −0.12 L/100 km (−1.1%) | −2.7 g/km (−1.1%) |
| White or silver | about 0.60 | −0.21 L/100 km (−1.9%) | −4.9 g/km (−1.9%) |
Each statement is labelled by kind — established fact, a standard’s requirement, observed market data, a convention, or Colourwise’s own interpretation or analysis — with the strength of the evidence behind it.
FactModerate evidence
Levinson et al. (2011) found that raising a car shell's solar reflectance by about 0.5, as from black to silver, lowered the soaked cabin air temperature at breath level by about 5–6 °C.
Caveat: A single paired-vehicle experiment with one car model.
FactModerate evidence
The same study estimated that a white or silver shell would reduce fuel use by about 1.9% and CO2 by about 4.9 g/km compared with black on a standard drive cycle, and that the silver car needed about 13% less air-conditioning capacity.
Method: Thermal measurements combined with vehicle simulation (SC03 drive cycle)
Caveat: Modelled, assuming linear scaling with reflectance; not measured on the road.
Colourwise interpretationLimited evidence
Dirt and fine scratches are most visible on black and very dark cars and least visible on mid-tone silver, grey and beige, because typical road dust is light and scratches scatter white light.
Based on: Reasoned from contrast between the typical lightness of road dust and scratch scatter and the lightness of the paint; Colourwise found no published measurement.
Caveat: Local conditions (red dust, salt, mud) change which colours hide dirt.
Reviewed 29 September 2026. Colourwise summarises its sources in its own words and does not reproduce standards text or proprietary colour data. Spotted an error? Tell us.