Why Are Vans typically white?

It is mostly speculation as to why vans are so often white as a default colour, however from what we can gather there are a handful of reasons as to why. There are also a handful of reason we have seen floating around that we think aren’t quite true which will be explored in this blog post as well.

Firstly, white is a better canvas for marketing. Lettering on top of a white background tends to stand out more than any other colour. The same goes for images, contact details and any other types of advertising that you can put on your van.

The aim of getting your vehicle wrapped in customized marketing is to stand out! That’s why in this instance starting with a white background is a big advantage and a big reason we believe a lot of vans are usually white. 

Another reason that most people assume vans are usually white is because white costs less, titanium dioxide is used to make paint white, and it just so happens to be cheap. The next cheapest paint additive is carbon black which creates a black finish obviously. Given that we already established that white is best for marketing, it is the obvious default choice.

However, there were other suggestion we came across that we found were not actually true, here are some of them…

White vans reflect heat – this is true to some extent however, it isn’t very often that we buy a vehicle based on how hot it makes us feel. This is especially true for reflective heat as aircon which is typically found in most vehicles makes it redundant. As mentioned, white does reflect heat, that goes for the heat you generate, as well as the far more distant heat generated by the sun. So technically, what you want is a colour that absorbs heat and doesn’t reflect your own heat back at you – and black is far better at that.

White vans are easier to see at night – again this is true but given that most vans are going to be parked up when it is dark it doesn’t really point towards making white the default van colour. 

Overall, we believe that the main reason that vans are usually white is most likely because it is the most cost effective. As you probably noticed there weren’t many reasons we could find as to why this is the default which seems to point towards the white colour being for cost saving reasons.