A driving instructor who switched to electric believes an industry-wide change is on the horizon which will sound the death knell for learning in petrol and diesel.

John Edy who owns Redy 2 Drive in Sittingbourne and Medway says all driving schools will be using electric, automatic vehicles in the next two to three years.

Driving instructor John Edy explains the move to electric cars

It comes amid high demand for instructors and tests caused by a lockdown-induced backlog.

"I think instructors will naturally progress across as we get closer to that 2030 point," John explained. "Manufacturers are going to start reducing the petrol and diesel cars that are available.

"It has always been automatic is second rate but that is just an old school type of looking at things. 90% of people have not been in an electric car.

"If we get more people out in them, they may be more willing to get one in the future."

People are are also fast feeling the pinch at the pump and becoming increasingly aware of their carbon footprint when selecting a vehicle.

John – who started the driving school in 2008 – changed his diesel Mini for an electric car in 2020.

He added: "I was looking at the cost of running it and it made sense at that point to move across. The price for doing high mileage, as we do as instructors, it just made sense to do it.

"It was something I had wanted to do for a long time and anything that brings the cost down and is environmentally friendly is worth doing.

"They are the way forward. They are not completely clean because you still need to make things but is it the right path? It probably is."

He said most of the people who come to him either did not know they could learn in an electric or have never been in one before.

He added: "Some of the people who come to me, get in the car for the first time and you have to explain it is an electric car and they go 'I thought it was an automatic'. It is both.

"You get the parents contacting us who want their kids to learn to drive and you explain to them that electric is the way forward.

"They probably asked for manual to begin with and you ask them why they have asked for manual and it is what they have always done.

"With everything that has happened in the last two years in terms of Covid, there is a big backlog on the tests and people just want to drive. There is also a shortage of instructors overall so people are now thinking 'just get an instructor'.

"They do not care if it is automatic or manual. They just want to get driving and get out on the roads. But there is an increasing amount of people that are aware of the electric cars."

Those young people looking to tear off their L plates "definitely want to get an electric car," explains John but he says cost is a big factor with second-hand electrics still fairly expensive.

But the driving instructor predicts in the next two to three years they will be more affordable.

John added: "In the next few years, young people will want to drive electric and refuse to go down the petrol and diesel route because they know the damage they are doing to the environment."