With the rise of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and hybrid cars, the idea of driving a manual car is far less of an absolute norm and expectation than it used to be, and it can be seen in the newest generation of young people taking driving lessons.

Whilst in previous generations there was an expectation if not an effective requirement that drivers learned and took their test in a car with a manual transmission, increasing numbers of young drivers are passing their test in an automatic car instead, with triple the numbers compared to a decade ago.

Part of this is that there is always an option to upgrade your license to a manual one if required, but another part is that with many manufacturers opting to make hybrids or BEV cars, there are a lot more options for cars that do not have a manual or semi-automatic gearbox.

Another part is that learning to drive an automatic means that you do not need to learn clutch control or manual shifting, and can be on the road with L plates far sooner. Many driving schools offer lessons in automatic cars at a similar rate to their manual lessons.

However, there are still plenty of benefits to learning to drive a manual, particularly when it comes to a lot of the practical matters of owning and running a car.

Whilst this will change in the future, most people will still be buying a petrol or diesel used car at first, and manual cars are still far more common and therefore cheaper to own.

As well as this, many car insurance companies will tend to provide cheaper rates for manual license holders compared to automatic ones, it is cheaper to get manual hire cars, and many courtesy and work-related vehicles are still manual cars, meaning that it can be a condition for work.

There is still a lot of value in driving a manual car at least at this point, and it is better value for money to get your manual license and not need it than to get an automatic license and then need to book a second test and additional lessons.