Organization honored for excellence in communications for success in preserving vehicle choice in the U.S.

The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) is the first-ever winner of the Federation International Automobile (FIA) President’s Award for Excellence in Communications, honored for its groundbreaking, multi-year, multi-channel effort to protect vehicle choice in the U.S. by stopping EV mandates. The award was announced and presented earlier today at the FIA General Assemblies in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

For this new award, which recognizes outstanding communication efforts that inspire, inform, and engage, SEMA was selected from a global pool of entries from across FIA’s member clubs.

SEMA’s entry highlighted the strategies and tactics it deployed during its historic two-year national advocacy campaign to defend Americans’ right to choose internal combustion, hybrid, or electric vehicles. In response to California’s 2035 zero-emission mandate (adopted by 11 states), SEMA launched a multi-channel political, media, and grassroots campaign to protect vehicle choice. Through the Driving Force Action SuperPAC, digital activism, and direct congressional lobbying, SEMA mobilized 7,000 small businesses, 70 million automotive enthusiasts, and lawmakers from across the political spectrum. The effort resulted in President Donald Trump signing a bipartisan Congressional Review Act resolution repealing California’s Advanced Clean Cars II waiver, reaffirming technology neutrality and preserving automotive freedom nationwide.

“Congratulations to CEO Mike Spagnola and SEMA on being awarded the 2025 Excellence in Communication Award,” said FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem. “SEMA's commitment to advancing our shared mobility values and championing consumer choice is inspiring. Their project has shown what can be achieved through unity, and I look forward to continuing our work together and seeing the progress of this campaign.”

“SEMA is honored to accept this award on behalf of our members and the broader U.S. community of automotive enthusiasts and consumers, for whom we fought this battle,” said SEMA President and CEO Mike Spagnola. “Our fight was never about preventing electric vehicles from gaining a foothold in the market; rather, it was about our right to choose, our ability to innovate, and our belief that technology-neutral government policies are necessary to help the free market thrive. The American automotive aftermarket has long been a shining example of our nation’s engineering prowess, and we’re anxious to continue this work to help every small business, family, and automotive enthusiasts to live their best, most prosperous lives through the vehicles they choose.”

For more information, please see SEMA’s highlight video submitted for the initial nomination.

ABOUT SEMA

The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) serves as a leading voice for the worldwide car culture, representing over 7,000 member companies that create, buy, sell, and use specialty-automotive parts that make vehicles more unique, attractive, convenient, safer, fun, and even like new again. Business member benefits include product development resources, market research, networking, education, legislative advocacy and more. The Association organizes the annual SEMA Show in Las Vegas, Nev., and actively supports the career and business opportunities that the aftermarket generates. The industry contributes nearly $337 billion in economic impact to the U.S. economy, supports 1.3 million jobs nationally, and generates $52.3 billion in parts sales annually. For more information, visit www.sema.org.

FEATURED IMAGE: From left: Jim Moore (SEMA Vice President OEM & Product Development-Garage), Mohammed Ben Sulayem (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile President), and Matt Daigle (SEMA Director of Communications-Government Affairs).

Tagged: EV Policy

SEMA’s Groundbreaking EV Mandates Campaign Wins FIA President’s Award