Why car manufacturers had better wake up - the young are getting on their bikes

The number of young people taking driving tests has dropped by 20% in the past five years

This is not just a UK thing because young people are also driving less in other developed­ countries, including the US, Germany and Japan.

An academic, working for BMW said that there was a :  “strong indication of profound changes in the travel behaviour among young adults in industrialised countries”.

The RAC and academics at Imperial College London estimate that  “car driver mileage” for Londoners aged 16 to 29 fell about a half between 1996 and 2010. For the country overall the figure was about a third.

As a car maker do you either work harder at getting a demographic group that cannot afford or who does not want to use cars or make sure you get your share of an age group that still prefers four to two wheels - the older consumer. I bet that debate is going on in the boardrooms of a few car manufacturers. Dick Stroud