Digital radios should become standard in new cars from the beginning of 2014 after vehicle makers agreed to adopt the technology.

Car manufacturers and broadcasters have signed up to proposals made in the Digital Britain White Paper in June, which allow for FM stations to be turned off from 2015.

Tony Moretta, chief executive of the Digital Radio Development Bureau, said: “We’re really encouraged that both industries are positive. It will be a big logistical challenge but we have finally take the first step on the road to converting all cars.”

Installing digital radios in cars is seen as a key step to ensuring that digital becomes the principal way in which Britons listen to radio. Although about a third of British homes have a digital set, only a handful of the 30 million cars on the road today have digital receivers.

Adrian van Klaveren, the controller of BBC 5 Live, said: “Over 20 per cent of radio listening takes place in cars, so this is a crucial issue for the radio industry.”

In 2007 and 2008, 2.1 million domestic digital sets were sold. By contrast, only 22,000 new cars sold in 2007 had digital radios built in — leaving the country increasingly split between two different standards.

Ford and Vauxhall, Britain’s leading vehicle manufacturers, which attended the meeting on Monday at the Radio Centre in London, said that they would sign up to the digital upgrade. Other manufacturers were represented by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

Stuart Harris, Vauxhall’s product development director, said: “We have a plan that fits in with where we are going. On our Astra and Insignia models, digital radio is already either built in or a £150 upgrade option on the lower-end cars, and by 2013 it will be available across all our models.”

Digital Britain commits the country to turning off all national AM and FM stations, ranging from Radio 1 and 5 Live to Absolute Radio and talkSPORT, once 50 per cent of radio listening becomes digital and at least nine out of ten homes can receive digital broadcasts. It would be impossible to achieve switchover targets without ensuring that radios in cars were upgraded as well.

Digital Britain’s goal is to ensure that all new cars either have digital radio sold as standard from 2014, or can be upgraded cheaply. What is less clear is how older vehicles will be brought into the scheme, although owners will probably simply be forced to upgrade in line with a national switchover.

Travis Baxter, managing director of Bauer Radio, said: “No party at the meeting questioned the need to move from analogue radio to digital. That is a new and very significant position.”

Car manufacturers had been reluctant to participate because the UK is one of the few countries in Europe that has adopted digital radio and the motor industry wants to manufacture on a pan-European basis. Complicating the situation further has been the refusal of France and Germany to join the UK’s DAB (digital audio broadcasting) standard.

France has committed to switching to digital radio by the middle of the next decade. Technological advances mean that it is possible to make a single $15 (£9) chipset that can handle different types of digital radio signal, allowing the same radio to be put in cars made for Britain, France and Germany.

The car manufacturers and radio station owners agreed, in conjunction with a series of government agencies represented at Monday’s event, that they would form a series of working groups to decide how to achieve the 2014 target.

Upgrading car radios is critical for AM stations such as BBC’s 5 Live and Absolute Radio, where the signal is far poorer than FM.

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