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One in four road tests in the UK are now conducted in automatic vehicles, based on latest figures, as drivers prefer more EVs and shy away from stick shifts.

Rising Trend Toward Automatic Vehicles

Statistics indicate that nearly half a million of the 1.8 million licensing exams completed in Great Britain in the previous year were done in automatics.

Insurer a major driving organization commented the movement is being propelled by the Britain's restriction on recent petrol and diesel cars coming in 2030.

Emma Bush, a senior leader of a leading driving instruction provider, noted that the requirement to know how to drive a manual transmission car is becoming "less important for numerous people."

Licensing Regulations

To obtain a complete driver's license for Britain, a individual must ace their assessment in a car with stick shift.

In the event that the exam is taken in an automatic vehicle, the driver would obtain a automatic-only license, restricting them to driving automobiles with self-shifting gearbox only.

Northern Ireland provides its own driving licences.

Forward-Looking Developments

The director said that individuals learning to drive are "growing assured with the idea of their future behind the wheel being electric."

"Approaching to the next decade and the restriction on the internal combustion engine vehicles, a growing percentage of trainees will want to learn in an eco-friendly car as that is what they will intend to operate."

Government Updates

Following the political race recently, the Labour government pledged to bring back the petrol and diesel ban to the year 2030, after previous prime minister the prior government postponed it to 2035.

Economic Perks

The lower ongoing expenses of eco-friendly cars is also appealing to numerous people.

EVs can be notably costlier than a combustion engine vehicle or a partially electric car initially, but the price difference is narrowing.

Moreover, EV owners can expect to cut costs on energy and upkeep costs.

Teacher Viewpoint

An industry professional, the operator of a driving academy in Swindon, said that automatic cars are "the direction things are heading" as the vehicle market advances toward electric vehicles.

For learner drivers, Ms Howe said, self-shifting cars can make the test simpler, as "it requires less coordination."

Novice motorists can "wreck a gearbox and a clutch," the instructor said, stating that stress may cause them to stop abruptly the power unit.

She also mentioned the movement was good for highway security as "people are less tired" driving an self-shifting car.

"It just makes life so much easier - it's reduced effort for the driver to do so they can pay closer attention on the traffic."

Numerical Growth

Motorists' perceptions toward battery-powered cars have rapidly changed in just the past ten years.

The quantity of licensing exams taken in self-shifting vehicles was over 87,000 in 2012/13, or 6.12% of every assessment, based on the data.

That figure jumped to nearly 480,000 in 2024/25, the last period with complete data, or 26%.

An industry group is predicting that nearly 30% of every exam will be taken in automatics in 2025/26.

Profile Differences

The figures also revealed that an increasing number of males are opting to take their assessments in self-shifting vehicles.

In 2012-2013, 23.2% of student drivers taking assessments in self-shifting cars were male drivers. Recently, that percentage was nearly 40%.

The approval ratio for automatics in the previous year was slightly lower than for manuals. But, the disparity has decreased since over a decade ago.