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Dupli Color Paint For Hyundai
Today's two-tone acrylic trend includes the Ambit Rover Velar, Ford Flex, VW T-Roc and Volvo XC40.
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PARIS — Two-tone acrylic jobs, aftermost apparent blind out at drive-ins beyond the U.S. in the 1950s, are back, this time with a audible European flair.
In the accomplished several years, about 20 models with the feature, abundantly with bodies and roofs in altered colors, acquire hit showrooms beyond Europe, with added assertive to come. So far the attending is abundantly bedfast to bunched hatchbacks and the surging SUV and crossover market.
Automakers say they are artlessly aggravating to accord barter added choices, admitting the options about arise as allotment of higher-content (and higher-priced) trim levels. Designers say it lets them comedy with blush as a administration aspect and breach up beheld accumulation as assurance regulations authorization thicker pillars and college beltlines.
"Designers are affable with the accommodation they have," said J Mays, retired arch of architecture at Ford who oversaw the Ford Flex, one of the few U.S. nameplates with a allegory roof option. "You can get a lot of blast for the blade out of two-tone paint."
Buyers of Citroen's new C3 Aircross SUV, for example, can mix and bout three roof colors and eight anatomy colors.
Mays: Afflicted by Mini’s design
'Different personalities'
"It's absurd how bodies acknowledge to the bitone colors," said Alexandre Malval, arch of architecture at Citroen, which offers two-tone options on four models. "If you accord them two colors to assemble, anon the car has altered personalities. Red with a white roof is a little bit sporty; chrism with a atramentous roof is a little added solid and tough. One in delicate with a white roof could be a little added feminine."
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The trend is not absolute to Europe. In the U.S., two-tone versions of the Toyota Camry and C-HR acquire angry up this year. Also, several Land Rover Ambit Rover models and Kia's Soul are accessible as two-tone models, as will be Hyundai's accessible Kona.
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Today's two-tone palette can be traced to the 1920s and '30s, aback custom coachmakers active adventurous colors on Rolls-Royces or Bugattis to advertise the abundance and aftertaste of their owners.
In the 1950s, American architecture studios, led by Harley Earl at General Motors, adopted adventurous swaths of blush disconnected by chrome trim curve to accent activating jet-age styling.
The accepted trend was kicked off by the neo-retro Mini that debuted in 2001, which best up its white roof from the aboriginal Alec Issigonis design. One of its breed was the white-roofed Ford Fairlane abstraction of 2005, which went into assembly as the Flex.
"I would be lying if I said I wasn't afflicted by the first-generation New Mini, which had admirable wraparound bottle and this admirable little beanie in white and after in black," Mays said. The Flex's white roof "added a little bit of brio to the car and fabricated it feel a bit like a modern-day woody, which is what we were aggravating to do," he added.
"I anticipate it afflicted a lot of added manufacturers," Mays said. "Some of them are absolutely successful, and some are absolutely terrible, but anybody seems to acquire jumped on that bandwagon."
Two-tone designs can serve several goals. From a commonsensical standpoint, a white roof can abate autogenous temperatures, as on the aboriginal Land Rover. Visually, a allegory roof blush can abate the aggregate of a crossover or SUV.
"What we did on the Flex, and what Gerry McGovern has done on the Land Rover Velar, with a aphotic roof and aphotic brave glass, is to finer chop the car in bisected and annihilate the added accumulation on the top," Mays said.
Color's new role
Sally Erickson Wilson, an accessory assistant in architecture at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, said colors acquire started to comedy a new role in automotive design.
"We are in the bosom of a about-face to material-led design, breadth the best of the blush can accent adroitness and the perceived affection of an breadth of the vehicle," she said.
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"It's all about advantageous absorption to detail," Erickson Wilson added. "Color can accomplish article assume added comfortable or added functional."
In today's automatic and hyperefficient factories, painting a car two colors can add amount and complexity, automotive coatings suppliers said.
"Bitone acrylic finishes are consistently added activity accelerated because of the appearance they require," a backer from Axalta Coating Systems in Switzerland said. "That agency the charge for added people, which in about-face can beggarly the abeyant for mistakes."
Mark Gutjahr, BASF's arch of automotive blush architecture for Europe, said the action about involves painting the absolute carapace in anatomy blush and bright coat, again appearance off with antithesis any genitalia that will abide in that color. A added blush is applied, flashed off and bright coated, again the antithesis is removed.
The added blush is activated either in a added line, which agency added investment, or on a added run in the capital line, which reduces capacity, Gutjahr said. Those are trade-offs that automakers are accommodating to acquire as they seek to advance appraisement beyond their range. Two-tone designs are generally allotment of a higher-trim amalgamation that can addition the amount of a car by bags of euros or dollars.
"The appeal is abundant college than we thought," said Matthew Harrison, carnality admiral of sales and business at Toyota Motors Europe, which offers two-tone options on the Aygo, Yaris, Auris and C-HR. "One of our headaches is befitting up with the bitone trend. We're accepting to consistently altercate with accomplishment to accession the assembly accommodation levels."
Robin Page, chief carnality admiral of architecture at Volvo Cars, said the new XC40 crossover, which goes on auction abutting year, was advised from the alpha to acquire altered roof colors.
"If you attending aback at best cars, they acclimated to comedy with two tones, but this is done in a absolutely avant-garde way and it does change the character," Page said. "The XC40 was absolutely a car breadth we said, 'OK, we'd adulation to acquire the R-Design versions with a atramentous roof and the Momentum trim band with a white roof.' "
The European champions for customization ability be the Opel Adam supermini, which offers at atomic seven roof colors and 19 anatomy colors, and the Renault Captur auto crossover, with four roof colors and 11 anatomy colors.
"When you've got so abounding combinations of roofs and acrylic tones, it's appealing involving to the customer," said Stewart Reed, administrator of the Transportation Architecture Department at Art Center College of Architecture in Pasadena, Calif. "It's like activity into a home capacity abundance and acrimonious out bolt and abstracts for attic coverings and countertops. Bodies adulation choices."
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Page: Volvo had a plan for XC40.
A two-tone future
The two-tone trend apparently has a few years left. A cardinal of models, including the Volkswagen T-Roc, Seat Arona, Opel Grandland X, Kia Stonic and Hyundai Kona acquire not yet clearly debuted or are aloof extensive the markets.
Carmakers and suppliers abide to agreement with altered processes, including press and the use of altered finishes such as matte and appearance in the aforementioned color.
"There are approaching possibilities that will accredit this trend to become bigger," said BASF's Gutjahr.
As to aback it will end?
"Ubiquity usually relegates aggregate to the debris bin," Mays said. "The companies that acquire this as allotment of their cast DNA like Mini or Land Rover, it won't go out of style."
Ultimately, he said, "It's activity to be one of those things you attending aback on in 10 years' time and say, 'Oh yeah, that was from that era appropriate about 2016-2017 aback everybody seemed to be accomplishing two-tone.'"
Douglas A. Bolduc contributed to this report.
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