The President of the AA says the revolution in electric vehicles means that young drivers will increasingly learn how to drive in automatic cars – eliminating the need for them to learn how to change gear.
Edmund King told The Telegraph that younger learners were already choosing “simpler” lessons in automatic cars because new petrol and diesel vehicles will be banned from the roads in 2030.
At the beginning of next year the AA will roll out electric car driving lessons nationally for the first time.
Because all EVs are automatic young drivers increasingly no longer need to learn how to change gear.
As part of pupils’ lessons in an electric car they will be taught to conserve their battery and drive with one pedal.
Mr King told the Telegraph: “The world of cars is changing. A revolution is coming. I think younger people are beginning to realise that 2030 is really not very far away.
“There is increasingly an acknowledgement that you do not necessarily need to learn how to change gear. In the very near future, you will only need to drive an automatic, because all EVs are automatic.
“Obviously, it is much harder to learn on a stickshift, because the most difficult thing to gather is clutch control. That takes up the first five lessons.”
There has already been increase in the number of driving tests taken in an automatic vehicle.
In 2008, only 3.8 per cent of tests were taken in an automatic vehicle, but by last year that had grown to 13.8 per cent.
Mr King added: “The increase in automatic tests probably isn’t due to a massive increase in EVs yet but the presumption that in the future everyone will drive EVs so why not take an easier test now to prepare for the future.”
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