The kids that don't want to drive are the minority of this age group. Our oldest graduated from high school 10 years ago and our youngest 5. Both of them and everyone they knew wanted to get a driver's license as soon as they could. The single biggest reason was so that they didn't have to ride in a school bus anymore. Parents are on board with this as well so they don't have to taxi the kids around anymore. It was true in our day and it is still true today. Getting a car is the single biggest increase in personal freedom they will know at that point in their lives.
The biggest problem for the model car companies is generational. The cars that really turn the kids' heads are models we will not touch. In turn, they cannot relate to the cars that make our heads turn and they will not build these models. The model car companies know what we will buy and cater to us. They right now cannot justify the cost of production for kits that cater to the younger crowd because they know we will not buy them and second they know there are not enough kids that will buy these models to make it profitable.
This is not all doom and gloom and things go boom. 3D printing is growing exponentially and at some point the costs will go down to a point that the model companies can look at this as their primary source of production. When this happens, "Katy bar the door". The model companies will get the electronic files from the 1:1 manufacturer as part of the licensing agreement, they will scale them down and then use their 3D production methods to bring the kits to market. This should bring production costs down dramatically. They will be able to market kits to the young modeler without all of the legacy costs of production molds.
I am very optimistic for the hobby because of this. The biggest problem I see is that we see the people participating in the model car segment as getting older by the day. We also tend to think that the way model cars are produced now will be the same 20 - 30 years from now. The model kits will be produced differently and the young people at that time will benefit from this greatly.