Learning how to change gear won’t be necessary for future young drivers, according to the president of the AA.
The motoring association’s driving school is set to roll out driving lessons specifically for electric vehicles next year.
Edmund King said that young learner drivers are choosing ‘simpler’ automatic tests because new petrol and diesel vehicles will be banned from the road from 2030.
The motoring association’s driving school is set to roll out driving lessons specifically for electric vehicles next year
The number of learner drivers taking their test in an automatic car has more than tripled since 2008 – from 3.8 per cent of tests to 13.8 per cent.
Mr King puts this rise in part down to young drivers taking ‘an easier test to prepare’ for an electric future.
‘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,’ Mr King told The Daily Telegraph.
It is more difficult to master a stickshift because clutch control is the hardest thing to grasp. This is the last lesson.
National lessons for electric vehicle driving will be offered by the British School of Motoring, which is owned by the AA.
The number of learner drivers taking their test in an automatic car has more than tripled since 2008 – from 3.8 per cent of tests to 13.8 per cent
One pedal driving is recommended by the nation’s largest driving school.
The Government has agreed to let instructors lease electric cars after successful negotiations and trials.
King acknowledged that young people are reluctant to purchase an electric car because they are expensive and insurance is costly.
This means that driving tests might be altered to incorporate lessons in electric cars. Also, those taking automatic car test could drive manual vehicles so they have the ability to drive classic cars.
Gordon Witherspoon (DVSA’s Deputy Chief Driver Examiner) told the paper that the DVSA continuously reviews all vehicle tests to account for changes in driving habits and technology.
He stated that they had begun to study the effect of electric vehicles upon driver and rider education as well as assessment. They also plan to make any necessary changes in order to adapt to this new vehicle type.