The AA Driving School has forecast that by 2026/27, one in three UK driving tests will be conducted in automatic cars, marking a major shift in how learners prepare for life on the road.
DVSA figures show automatic tests have risen sharply in the past decade:
- In 2012/13, just 6.1% of car tests were in automatics.
- By 2023/24, that figure was 23.4%.
- In 2024/25, it climbed again to 26%, representing nearly 480,000 tests.
- Current trends suggest the share could hit 32% by 2026/27.
This rise is closely tied to electric vehicle (EV) adoption. All EVs are automatic, and with the Government’s Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate requiring manufacturers to sell more EVs each year, many learners are choosing to train in vehicles that reflect the future of driving.
Emma Bush, Managing Director of AA Driving School, said: “With more people becoming confident with the idea of their driving future being electric, the idea of needing to drive a manual vehicle will feel irrelevant to many. More learners will want to learn in an electric vehicle as that’s all they will plan to drive.”
The AA Driving School has expanded its EV fleet, offering instructors the Mini Aceman SE, VW id.3 Pro Hatch and BYD Dolphin Comfort. In 2024 alone, over 68,000 hours of driving lessons were taught in EVs, and more than a third of trainee instructors began their careers in automatic cars.
Growth in Automatic Driving Tests (DVSA data and AA forecast)
Year % of Tests in Automatics Approx. Number of Auto Tests 2012/13 6% 88,000 2018/19 11% 185,000 2022/23 19% 324,000 2024/25 26% 480,000 2026/27* 32% (predicted) –
* AA Driving School forecast
For ADIs and PDIs, the figures point to a future where automatic tuition becomes a central part of training. Adapting to this shift could help trainers align with learner demand, particularly as the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel car sales draws closer.
2 thoughts on “Automatic Driving Tests on Track to Reach One Third by 2027”
Not every Driving Instructor has the infrastructure
To charge an EV, I live in a flat, the only way for me to charge an EV is through public means, this is expensive and not time efficient.
We are 5 years away from the ban on ICE sales. Where is the charging infrastructure for those living in flats and terraced houses? What will the electricity cost? Who is going to pay for the infrastructure? Where is the power coming from? Our reliable generation plants are not only being closed down but blown up.
Here is the kicker though. As EVs become more numerous, how is the loss of road fuel duty and VAT to be replaced? This is around £50 billion pa. Then we must consider VED (road tax). This varies depending on the car. I have two cars that cost £35 a month to tax, one that is tax exempt and one that costs £30 a year. Complex though this is, it still raises a lot of money. EVs are only now starting to pay a little bit of VED but nothing like and ICE vehicle.
Despite all of this, the second hand EV market remains on the floor. Nobody wants them. If anything goes wrong, they are horrendously expensive to fix and private buyers are not keen on taking on such a liability. There are not many independent garges qualified to fix them and dealer rates are out of sight. The claim that EVs do not need servicing is of course palpable nonsense. They have most of what makes an ICE car go. Brakes, bearings, bushes, CV joints, balll joints, coolant etc. They do not need the engine or gearbox oil changed. In fact, many gearboxes are filled for life, so the only saving is the engine oil change.
There are other costs too. The government is subsidising new EV sales as well as giving very generous breaks to the Benefits in Kind income taxation. This all adds up to an awful lot of money and it has escaped the government’s notice that the country is skint. As things stand, borrowing is out of control and the nation’s interest payments alone are eye watering. These can only go up.
Thus far, we have escaped power cuts by the tiniest of margins. It will not take much for the lights to go out and then there will be trouble across the nation. There is enough pent up fury already without everything in the freezer melting.
Electricity costs will continue to rise as the absurd pricing model is followed, along with green levies to pay for unproductive wind and solar farms. AI requires vast amounts of power. The big players in the States are trying to buy nuclear power stations to keep the computers running. Our prices are four times higher. Who in their right minds would invest here? We have already driven out most, if not all, of our power hungry industries.
This policy is doomed to failure because the costs are out of sight. More to the point, the premise for this nonsense is utterly wrong. Poor old CO2 is being blamed for our climate change ills. The problem here is that the CO2 increase follows temperature increase so therefore, cannot be causing warming. Equally, the climate has changed for as long as the Earth has existed. Vines were grown in Northumberland in Roman times while the mini ice age occured from roughly 1650 to 1850, when it was so cold that the Thames in London froze to a depth to allow safe ice skating in winter.
So much political and cash capital has been invested, going back is not an option, regardless of the evidence. We are living in a slowly expanding financial bubble that is getting close to popping with predictable fiscal results. However, once this folly is flushed away, we can get on with building up our great nation once more.