News and Testimonials

R-M premium automotive refinish brand of BASF Coatings, enters its ninth consecutive year of partnership with Emil Frey Racing and proudly continues this high-performance collaboration into the 2026 motorsport season. United by a shared commitment to provide performance, precision, and eco-efficiency, R‑M and Emil Frey Racing transfer motorsport expertise into the daily operations of body shops, creating added value for Emil Frey customers. The team competes in the DTM (Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters) and GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup. The R-M brand will take center stage on the Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo with the number #14, displayed alongside the striking BWT Pink, RED and Planet Blue colors.

Approximately 40 participants from auto body and paint shops accepted R-M’s invitation and attended the R-M Masterclass event held on April 17, 2026, at Falcone GmbH, Carrosserie + Spritzwerk, in Biel-Benken. This hands-on event, organized by BASF Coatings Services AG, was aimed at existing R-M partner companies as well as interested shops wishing to learn more about the brand and its solutions.

Refinity® Eco Impact Assessment tool for body shops in Europe now TÜV certified for its calculation method. The TÜV certification confirms corporate carbon footprint calculation for body shops according to GHG protocol. Thus, Eco Impact Assessment enables body shops to achieve efficiency gains by leveraging reliable data and advanced analytics.

This International Women’s Day, R-M celebrates women breaking barriers in automotive refinishing and beyond. A standout example is Ntombi Makhele who won the South Africa’s 2025 R-M Paint or Die Trying Champion competition: "Being recognised as the best spray painter in that event was an incredible honour, but what made it historic was becoming the first woman to ever hold that title in South Africa. It was a victory for every woman trying to make her mark in a trades-based industry. It proves that excellence has no gender."

We recently welcomed the management team of Benecar® Cidade do Automóvel to our R-M, BASF Coatings site in Guadalajara, Spain. For over 30 years, the Benecar Group has been a benchmark in the Portuguese automotive market with R-M.

R-M® is the preferred paint supplier for the Volvo Car UK Approved Bodyshop Network. Volvo Body shops can benefit from the most advanced portfolio of the premium refinish brand R-M.

R-M and Toyota Motor Europe have defined a shared roadmap to drive Body and Paint excellence across Europe for the Toyota and Lexus network. The alignment, established at Toyota Motor Europe headquarters in Brussels, sets clear priorities for 2026 and beyond.

Our Automotive Refinish Coatings experts were on site at NADA (National Automobile Dealers Association) in Las Vegas and connected with OEM partners, dealership groups, and industry leaders to discuss how future repairability, advancing vehicle technology, and data-driven insights are reshaping dealership strategy. As vehicles continue to increase in complexity, driven by ADAS proliferation, EV adoption, advanced materials, and OEM-specific repair requirements, future repairability is becoming both a challenge and a significant business opportunity.

Sustainability decisions start with reliable data. With BASF Coatings’ new Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) solution, R‑M customers now gain real‑time, auditable CO₂ insights across more than 120,000 products, including AGILIS, ONYX HD and our full range of auxiliaries.

Powered by 25,000+ raw materials and global energy flows, the system delivers a consistent, fact‑based CO₂ calculation and expands beyond carbon to additional impact categories, offering deeper sustainability insights for body shops.