New drivers, EV Autos and the effect on the used market

[ZiggyNiva]

As more people move towards EV it won't be long till people are learning to drive in them. They seem a sensible choice for driving schools given low maintenance costs. This will mean people passing with Auto only drivers licences. Appreciate this is probably still a number of years off, but I wonder what the knock on effect on the used market will be, and also if we will see classic cars scrapped or become for viewing only as younger generations can't drive them.

[HTP99]

Having worked in the motor trade for over 20 years I've noticed a general shift towards learning in an auto for many years now, nothing to do with EV's it's just kids these days are far less interested in cars.

[vikingaero]

The Vikingettes are both currently learning to drive. V1 has been scuppered by Covid. Her first test was in March 2020 when Covid hit and a succession of cancellations and starting Uni meant that she never took her test. Now her theory has expired. Both now think (and I agree) that they should go the auto route as all cars in future will be auto/EV for them.

[Jawls]

Could be that we end up scrapping the distinction between auto only and ordinary licenses. Lots of other countries don’t have that distinction.

In any case, think this is years off given fleet replacement timescales. There are currently significant benefits to a manual license (eg. Ease of car rental at airports etc, work pool cars generally being manual etc). And the pool of people who know how to drive a manual is huge (I don’t know any British born person with an auto only license, though the plural of anecdote is not data).

Special older cars are perfectly safe. But nobody is going to go dewy-eyed over bog standard Vauxhall Astras etc. They’ll be run into the ground, just as they are now, and then scrapped.

[limpsfield]

Some interesting stats that show it has been not surprisingly a trend for a few years now.





And almost a quarter of test passes in London are in an auto.





Source: https://www.wearemarmalade.co.uk/driver-hub/news/i...

[The spinner of plates]

My kid just passed in a manual which I’m pleased about.

But… I gave him a lift on the weekend and he watched a hill start in my auto daily driver.
And just said “ok I’m getting an automatic”.

[98elise]

On auto trader nearly 50% of all the cars for sale are auto. I've also noticed a couple of EV learner cars locally.

If you're going to teach auto then it might as well be in an EV. The fuel savings would be huge.