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[w3526602]

Hi,

We all know about passing one's driving test in a automatic car.

But what happens if one passes a driving test in a battery powered car?  And what group licence will you be issued, if/when you do? And IF there is a difference, where will they find qualified instructors and examiners?

It may sound silly now, but 50 odd years ago, I heard several ladies at DVLC express concern about being authorised to hire cars for official business, and expressing concern about the cars having power steering. Or an automatic gearbox.  OK, it only took a few minutes to get used to the idea.  Barbara made similar noises when she climbed into her 70 birthday prezzy (3 laps driving around Silverstone in a Ferrari ... best birthday prezzy ever). A howl of anguish ... "Where's the gear lever?"  She'd passed her test in a manual, South East London, in a rusty £50 mini that she drove for the first time the previous day, and later had plenty of experience of driving autos (Civil Service provided hire cars), but had never heard of "paddle shift" A quick explanation of how it worked, and she was "away with the mixer". A "tyro" driver might have remained confused.

Don't laugh, but there was a legendary "Colonial Cousin" who rented a Jaguar from London Airport, and destroyed the gearbox by driving to Birmingham in FIRST gear.  Is "four on the floor" still an alien concept in the USA?

I admit, I know nothing about driving electric, but assume it will have similariies to driving a DAF rubber-band transmission ... I've owned one of those too, a 66. Interesting! DAFs were regarded as autos, as the gear ratio was controlled, to some extent, by the accelerator pedal. I assume that taking the test in a battery car will give you, at best, an automatic only licence ... but will it be battery only auto, or will you be licenced to drive IC and CI autos.
too.

602... who is "gridding his lions" before suggesting to "She who must be obeyed" that we really, really, must have battery powered S2 ... perhaps with the motor nailed onto the "PTO" facility on the back of the gearbox, making it a PPI ... Power Push In. 

[Clifford Pope]

Presumably this is already happening - there must already be people who have passed driving tests in electric cars, so some decision has already been made. What kind of licence have they got?

It must have been the same when automatics came in. Unless they had already changed the rules before a single automatic was on the roads, people who early on passed in automatics must have received ordinary licences. Did the then revoke those licences, or have they "got away with it?"

[Craig T]

If you take a test in an electric car you currently get given a normal licence but one for automatic cars only. You can't drive a manual car with that licence.

My partners licence has been reduced to an auto one only even though she passed in a manual but she has a left leg problem so can't press a clutch pedal. The DVLA need to know about that so the licence was changed accordingly.

Craig.

[oddjob]

It hadn’t occurred to me that the move to electric means the end of manual gearboxes 
Even my wife’s new mini is an automatic with something like 9 gears. 

I guess eventually they’ll do away with the manual/automatic licence categories altogether.

[Craig T]

I think manual boxes will hang on for a long time yet in commercial vehicles and classic cars. I can see them doing away with the manual licence and if you want to drive one, you simply learn yourself how to do it.

I can also see an end to automatic gearboxes as CVT's are getting far better these days. My partners Yaris hybrid is a CVT and it's just one, smooth acceleration, no gearchanges and dips in the revs as you get faster. I assume most electric vehicles are direct drive from the motor to the wheels?

Craig.

[Clifford Pope]

Is it the absence of a clutch that makes a car an "automatic", or absence of a gearlever?
What does a pre-selector gearbox count as?
There are (or were) gearboxes that worked automatically but you had the option of moving the lever to select specific gears if you wanted to.