Young drivers increasingly no longer need to learn how to change gear ahead of the coming revolution in electric cars, the President of the AA has said.

Edmund King said younger learners were already choosing “simpler” lessons in automatic cars because new petrol and diesel vehicles will be banned from the roads in 2030.

In the New Year, the largest driving school in the country will roll out electric car driving lessons nationally for the first time.

Rather than learning how and when to change gear, pupils at the AA-owned British School of Motoring will be taught to conserve their battery and drive with one pedal.

‘A car revolution is coming’ 

Mr King, who drives an electric car himself, 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.”

Drivers taking tests in automatic cars more than triples  

After a successful trial last year, and discussions with the Government, the BSM and AA Driving School are to give instructors the option of leasing an electric car as part of their franchise.

The proportion of learner drivers taking their test in an automatic rather than a manual car has already more than tripled since 2008, according to analysis of data from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency.