The National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA) and CEO of Group 1 Automotive UK Mark Raban met with Alex Norris, MP for Nottingham North and Kimberley on Wednesday.
The meeting took place during a site visit to the Group 1 Toyota dealership in Nottingham.
Sue Robinson, Chief Executive of NFDA, said: “We are grateful to Alex Norris MP for taking the time to engage directly with industry representatives and to Mark Raban for outlining the challenges and opportunities facing our sector.
“NFDA remains committed to working closely with MPs to ensure pressing issues for dealers are heard. These discussions will continue leading into the major party conferences next week.”
The three discussed the Employee Car Ownership Scheme. The industry believes that losing around 150,000 vehicle registrations with negatively affect both dealership employment, but also the treasury’s coffers, not boost them.
They also discussed the importance of apprenticeships in developing future talent Dealerships are heavily investing in training and re-skilling the workforce, particularly to support the growing shift toward EVs.
The industry believes that the high upfront cost of EVs remains a barrier for many consumers and infrastructure is in need of greater consolidation.
New OEM entrants into the UK market were acknowledged as a positive development for consumers, bringing increased competition.
