A rising number of learner drivers are taking their tests in automatic cars as a result of the surge in electric vehicles.
Statistics from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) show that a quarter of the tests taken in England, Scotland and Wales last year were done in automatic.
The AA has said this trend is being driven by the UK’s ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars coming in 2030 because EVs don’t need manual gearboxes. DVSA data shows 470,000 of the 1.8 million driving tests taken across Britain in 2023 were in automatics.
To gain a full licence, drivers must pass their test in a manual car – otherwise, they are limited to a Category B Auto licence, which restricts them to automatic vehicles. Northern Ireland issues its own licences separately.
Emma Bush, the managing director of AA’s driving school, said the need to know how to drive a manual car is becoming ‘irrelevant to many’.
Ms Bush said that drivers and learners are ‘becoming confident with the idea of their driving future being electric’.
Data from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) show that a quarter of driving tests carried out in England, Scotland and Wales last year were done in automatic cars
‘As we head closer to 2030 and the ban on the sale of new combustion cars, more and more learners will want to learn in an electric vehicle, as that’s all they will plan to drive.’
The Labour government, elected last year, has reinstated the 2030 deadline for banning new petrol and diesel sales, after former prime minister Rishi Sunak had pushed it back to 2035.
Ms Bush said the lower day-to-day running costs of EVs and hybrids are also drawing drivers in.
Although electric models remain more expensive upfront than petrol, diesel or hybrid alternatives, the price gap is narrowing, while fuel and maintenance savings are significant, the BBC reports.
Previous analysis has shown almost three in ten cars on British roads are now automatics, with the number of drivers ditching the gearstick rising sharply.
Automatics account for 29.3 per cent of the UK’s cars, up 118 per cent between 2014 and 2024, according to data from Solera cap hpi.
A decade ago, just 16.3 per cent of passenger cars were automatics.
Today, there are more than 15.5 million automatic cars on the road – more than double the 7.1 million registered in 2014.
Manual cars have risen only 2.4 per cent in the same period, from 26.6 million to 37.5million.
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