NADA continues to work on behalf of the franchised dealer body, supporting dealers and providing the tools and education they need to tackle the biggest transformation in the industry’s 122-year history—the predominance of electric vehicles (EVs) coming onto the market.

2022 NADA Chairman Michael Alford and NADA President and CEO Mike Stanton joined NADA’s Senior Vice President of Public Affairs Jonathan Collegio at the Live Stage on Sunday to give NADA Show attendees a look at what’s ahead for NADA and franchised dealerships.

“We are all in. We are essential. Now the question is: what are the next steps in that journey,” Alford said. “NADA is supporting our dealers and providing the tools to help.”

Just this week during the show, NADA has announced a partnership with the Center for Sustainable Energy and Plug In America to greatly enhance EV education at franchised dealerships nationwide to prepare dealers and salespeople at the store level.

Stanton and Alford also pointed to the great “spirit of cooperation” between dealers and manufacturers that has been on display at NADA Show 2022. “Just that reassurance from OEMs and hearing them reaffirm that [cooperation] over and over has been great for dealers,” said Stanton.

Collegio pointed to a pre-recorded congratulations video for Alford played before his chairman’s speech on the Main Stage on Saturday in which Chair and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors Mary Barra said the franchise dealership body was a “competitive advantage” for GM.

Alford also gave a bit of insight into Saturday’s GM make meeting. “What I have enjoyed over the last number of shows is the openness, honestness and depth of content the GM leadership brought to this meeting, addressed some of the issues that dealers are facing, [and] that GM is facing. The dialogue with OEMs is really positive and we need to maintain that and build upon that.”

“We’ve been educating. We’ve been advocating. One thing our industry does really well is when we align, you can see the power of our industry,” Alford said.

Check out the video below for Stanton’s thoughts on legislative and regulatory issues, what Alford hopes to accomplish by NADA Show 2023 and why dealers need to get involved in their state associations.