The Geneva Motor Show has been overrun by red cars

Far be it from me to lay claim to an entire trend, but I did spend my last day at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show admiring two especially pretty red editions of popular cars: the Lamborghini Huracan and BMW’s i8. I found both looked even more delightful with their rouge retouching, and it seems that the car world has agreed with my assessment wholeheartedly.

What was but a little blip on the color fashion map last year has exploded into an absolute deluge in 2017, with practically every car manufacturer introducing a new car in red. Don’t believe me? Let’s looks at the gorgeous, crimson evidence:

What could have prompted this collective enthusiasm for red? Is it a subtle nod to International Women’s Day, which this year urged people to wear red as an expression of solidarity? Is it the traditional Baba Marta custom, which Bulgarians observe in the month of March by exchanging red-and-white figures made of yarn? Both are fun, specious ideas, though an actually plausible explanation might be that car companies are just being wily and trying to appeal to the biggest growth market in the world today, China, where red symbolizes good fortune.

Red has seen an increase in global popularity in recent years, though it’s still far behind the conservative choices of black, white, and every shade of gray in between. Even so, there’s nothing stopping car companies from presenting their new vehicles in the brightest and most ostentatious colors to attract attention, before selling the staid silver option to the end user. Painting your Geneva debutant red seems like just good business sense for carmakers eager to expand their horizons — and it does no harm to their chances with people like me, who just really like the color.

Bonus tech trivia: all of the above photos were shot with my trusty Google Pixel, which has been rivaling my professional Sony A6500 camera all week.

Photography by Vlad Savov / The Verge