Core77

Is blue the new green? Or the new orange? A little of both it seems.

Electric blue - rather a particular shade of light yet highly saturated blue - is the predominant trend color at the North American International Auto Show this year. Lamborghini painted two of its three cars on display a gorgeous gloss blue that looked almost like porcelain enamel. Ever since the availability of electroluminescent sheet material, more and more instrument clusters have gone blue, but we haven't seen the shade quite so much on the exteriors.

Blue is edging out green as the signature color for environmental propulsion technologies. Electric blue has been Toyota's "energy" color for years, and BLUETEC is the name of Mercedes Benz's clean diesel technology. BMW and GM are among others who've adopted blue to show how green they are.

In the design of exhibits - lighting in particular - blue LEDs are everywhere. It communicates clean and high-tech. It makes environmental initiatives seem less granola and a bit more sexy. As a paint color, it hasn't hit with the same level of over-saturation [pun intended] orange did back in the late 1990s, but don't be surprised if everyone follows Lambo's lead by this time next year. (The Italians are supposed to set style trends after all...)