Automatic transmissions were once the more expensive option when buying a new car – but now, they’ve become the norm.

New figures have revealed, just three per cent of all car sales in Australia are manual, and select manufacturers are only releasing some new models in automatic.

Motor Trade Association CEO Stephen Moir told Perth LIVE’s Oliver Peterson, manufacturers are moving on.

“There is less and less demand for manuals,” he said.

“The other thing is, the advancements in technology in cars – we’ve now got automatic gearboxes for eight, nine and ten-speed. They deliver fantastic fuel economy, but can you imagine crunching through nine gears?

“If we look at Australia’s best-selling small car which is the Toyota Corolla, it’s around one per cent now, are manual, that’s way down from where it used to be.”

Moir says while some cars, such as high performance vehicles, will continue to be produced as manual, the trend towards automatic will continue.

“We are going to see this transition across to easier driving,” he said.

“We’re going for convenience – and electric cars, once we move into that realm, don’t have a gearbox at all, just a single speed.”

Press PLAY to hear the full interview