O The Federal Issues Impacting Virginia Dealers — For Better or Worse VADA Leaders Attend Annual NADA Washington Conference; Here Are the Top Issues One of the benefits of working out of Richmond is our proximity to Washington, D.C. Such short distance to the nation’s capital makes it easy for VADA staff to attend NADA’s Annual Washington Conference. This year’s event, held in mid-September, saw dealer association leaders from across the U.S. gather to discuss the myriad developments and challenges of the industry and world economy. The VADA team in D.C. included Legislative Affairs Director Ralston King, General Manager Steve Hoffman, Field Representative Pat Martin, and Mike Suttle of Suttle Motors, who serves as NADA Director for Virginia. The group had numerous positive interactions with various Congressional members from both political parties. This included U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Rep. Roger Williams (R-TX) and a dealer himself, and Sen. Katie Britt (RAL). Dealers also heard from Ali Zaidi, the National Climate Advisor under President Biden. VADA’s own Geoff Pohanka, who serves as NADA Chair, also spoke to attendees. Leaders also lobbied with Congressional representatives and their aides on a number of key federal issues impacting dealerships. See this article on vada.com/news to find issue pages for more detail. FTC REDO Act (NADA Position: Support) The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) proposed a “Vehicle Shopping Rule” that would overwhelm car buyers and small businesses with additional paperwork and needlessly lengthen the sales process. Among other issues, the rule increases the complexity of the car-buying process, adding more paperwork to an already paperwork-intensive process for consumers while also creating inconsistent and unnecessary rules and burdens for small businesses. The rule was proposed without credible data-driven analysis or the necessary time for public comment to avoid unintended consequences for consumers and small businesses. A comprehensive study by the Center for Automotive Research found that the 10-year cost of the rule would be over $38 billion. Overall, the FTC’s proposed rule would make the auto buying experience worse, not better, for consumers. The “FTC REDO Act” directs the FTC to “redo” its flawed Vehicle Shopping Rule, but this time with basic regulatory safeguards the agency should have properly undertaken in the first place. NADA’s Ask: Cosponsor the soon-to-be-introduced House and Senate FTC REDO Act. EPA Requirements (NADA Position: Oppose) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed new emissions standards that would effectively require 67.5% of U.S. car sales to be electric by 2032. New car and truck dealers are essential to sell and service EVs and have already invested $5.5 billion of their own capital in the tools, equipment, training and recharging infrastructure, which are critical to laying the foundation to move from early adopters to mass marketing EVs to the average consumer. Despite federal incentives, customers are not purchasing electric vehicles in the quantities required for automakers to meet these different government mandates. The current EPA proposal ignores real-world consumer demand and, as a result, “goes too far, too fast,” NADA says. Consumers are not moving as fast as the proposed regulations, largely because of the other changes needed to make EVs broadly attractive to consumers: affordability, a sufficient and reliable charging infrastructure, and acceptable charging speeds. 6 Virginia Auto Dealer
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