For Dealers Already Selling
Authorised Programme, or Your Own Brand
Not two prices for the same thing. They differ in what you own when the agreement ends — and in which parts of the job become yours.
An authorised dealer programme and building your own brand are not two prices for the same thing. They differ in what you own at the end. In an authorised programme the brand, the model line and the retail positioning belong to the brand owner, and the conditions a dealer has to meet are the brand owner’s to set: authorised programmes typically require territory approval, display space, a credit line and a stocking commitment, along with volume terms — last year’s sales, an annual commitment and a minimum first order. None of it is generally published; it is settled in the course of dealing with the brand. Ask for the full list in writing before you commit.
Under your own brand the carts carry your name and you choose the configuration for your market — and the parts a programme fixes on your behalf become yours to decide and yours to pay for: specification, lead time, the parts shelf, the marketing, and the importing. Neither answer is right in general. The rest of this page is the line-by-line difference, including three reasons to choose an authorised programme instead.
Written by EV Cart Source, a factory-direct golf cart supplier — so read the own-brand column as an interested party describing its own terms. Where we describe another company, it is from that company’s own published page and the date we read it is stated. Last updated September 2026.
Line by line
No scores and no recommendation in this table, deliberately — the weighting depends on your market and only you have it. The third column is what the line means for your side of the deal, not which column wins it.
One thing worth holding in mind while you read it. The same annual volume can be a modest account inside a national brand’s network and a significant one to a factory. That does not make either arrangement right for you — but it does change who you are in the conversation, and it is usually why a dealer who has done well inside a programme starts asking this question in the first place.
Whose name is on the cart
The brand owner's. The model line, the styling and the retail positioning are theirs to set and theirs to change.
Yours. Body and front badge, seat embroidery, hub caps, steering wheel, key and the dashboard start-up animation are private-label options, selected and priced item by item. Branded carts can be ordered from one unit; what the quotation depends on is which of those items you pick, because they are not all the same kind of work.
What it means: This is the line everything else follows from. If the name on the cart is not yours, the recognition that name earns stays with whoever owns it. Your own store name, your customers and your service reputation are yours either way.
What you have to put up before you can start
Authorised programmes typically require territory approval, display space, a credit line and a stocking commitment, along with volume terms. You can see the shape of it in what the applications ask for: Bintelli's dealer application asks for a storefront address, number of employees, and how many golf carts you sold in the last 12 months, each marked required (read 24 September 2026). The terms themselves are settled in the course of dealing with the brand rather than published, so ask for the full list in writing before you commit to anything.
A first order. It can be one branded sample rather than a container, on a 30% T/T deposit with the balance before shipment.
What it means: Whatever a programme asks of you, get it in writing before you plan around it. Starting with a sample puts the evidence first instead — you see the product and the paperwork before the money is at container scale.
Margin, and who sets it
The brand owner sets the dealer buy price and the retail positioning, so both ends of your margin are decided outside your own business.
You set the retail positioning, and you are buying from the factory that builds the cart. Both ends of the margin are yours to set.
What it means: Being precise about this matters, because it is the line dealers in this position are usually asking about. An own brand does not hand you margin. It hands you control of both ends of it, together with the costs a programme was absorbing on your behalf — the parts shelf, the assembly, the importing and the marketing. What comes out of that is your pricing decision and your cost discipline, not a feature of the supply arrangement.
How much capital you tie up, and in whose plan
Stocking commitments and a credit line put working capital against an inventory plan set by the brand owner, on the brand owner's timetable.
You decide how much to buy and when — a single branded sample first, then containers sized to your own sell-through.
What it means: Ask what a stocking commitment actually obliges you to take in a slow quarter, and get the answer in writing. That answer decides how much of your working capital is not yours to move, and it is easy to sign past when the conversation is about unit price.
Who decides the specification
The brand owner, for the whole network. You order from the line as it is offered.
You, per order — seat count, lift, battery chemistry and capacity, wheels, upholstery from the standard palettes.
What it means: If your market wants something the line as offered does not cover, under a programme that is a request into someone else's product plan; under your own brand it is an order specification. Ask either side what is actually available before you plan around it.
Where the carts come from, and in what state
Whatever the brand's distribution arrangement provides in your market — ask how the carts reach you and from where.
From the factory, SKD. Reckon on about 1–3 hours per cart for one experienced technician working alone, with the illustrated manual and remote guidance included — and the first one takes longer while the sequence is still new.
What it means: A production run takes the time it takes. So if you need carts within the month, the question is whether finished units already exist somewhere you can reach — ask whoever you are buying from, including us.
Lead time
Depends on the arrangement in your market — ask, rather than assuming stock is standing by.
Custom production runs about 45 working days from the deposit and artwork approval.
What it means: Plan your season backwards from this line. Whether a given quarter is reachable at all is decided here, before anything else is.
Parts, warranty, and how long the platform keeps running
Through the programme, on the brand owner's terms and timetable.
15-month vehicle warranty, 3 years on lithium packs, from the factory ship date. On a container order our engineers size a spares package before it ships, usually 5–10% of order value, built around the vehicles you bought and the service capability where you are; if something is not on your shelf, it can come direct from China — about a week when it is in stock — or from our Wheatland, Missouri facility, which carries spare parts and provides repair service for qualifying markets.
What it means: Under your own name you are the warranty face to your customer, so the parts shelf stops being optional — that is a real cost and it belongs in your plan rather than in a surprise. And the sharpest question in this segment is not the unit price: it is whether the parts will still be there years from now. Ask it of any supplier, us included, and ask specifically what happens to your parts supply if the relationship ends. A supplier who has not thought about that answer has told you something.
Marketing and demand
You are selling under a name your market may already know, and whatever marketing the brand runs is the brand's to decide and to describe.
You build the recognition. We supply product photography, specifications and documentation; the market-facing work is yours.
What it means: This is the part that is work rather than a purchase. A brand of your own is an asset you are building, not one you are handed.
Territory
Usually defined and approved by the brand owner before you can sign.
Protected territory solves a problem this arrangement does not have. A branded programme needs it because two dealers in one market end up with the identical cart under the identical name, and price is the only thing left to compete on. Your carts carry your brand and your configuration — the dealer three towns over is not selling them, because they are not his to sell.
What it means: Read this as an explanation of why the question changes shape, not as a promise of protection — we are not offering one here. Whatever any supplier tells you about territory, treat it as unreal until it is in the contract.
Importing
Depends on the arrangement — ask who is recorded as the importer and who carries the customs entry.
Yours. Freight, customs entry, brokerage, port charges and drayage are lines you or your agents arrange.
What it means: This is the other side of owning the margin, and it is work rather than a formality.
Three reasons to choose an authorised programme instead
- You need carts on your floor this month. A production run cannot compress into the current month, however it is organised and whoever is running it. If that is the requirement, buy from whoever already has finished units near you — ask a programme distributor or a domestic wholesaler what they actually hold — and come back when you are planning a season rather than filling a gap.
- Recognition is what closes the sale in your market. In some markets the name the customer already knows is what does it. Building your own name there is work you would be taking on, and it runs past the first container — price that in honestly.
- You do not want to import. Freight, customs entry, brokerage and drayage are real work. If you would rather not own those lines, ask a programme who carries them in its arrangement — that is the brand's answer to give, not ours, and it is worth getting in writing.
We would rather say this before a deposit than after one. What the landed cost of importing actually contains is set out on Golf Cart Landed Cost.
You do not have to choose on paper
The decision reads as binary and does not have to be taken that way. A first custom order here can be a single branded sample rather than a container, so a dealer already carrying another line can put one cart with their own name on the floor next to it and let the floor answer the question.
If it earns the space, repeat orders ship by the container and can mix models, so the range widens without one order resting on a single configuration. If it does not, you have learned that for the cost of one unit rather than a programme commitment.
One thing to check on your own side first: read your existing agreement. Some programmes place restrictions on what else a dealer may stock. That is a question about the contract you signed rather than a question for us, and it is better answered before the sample than after it.
Order mechanics — MOQ, payment, lead time — are on How to Order. What can be branded and configured is on Private-Label & Customization.
Questions dealers ask at this decision
What is the difference between an authorised golf cart dealer programme and building your own brand?
They differ in what you own at the end, not in the price of a cart. In an authorised programme the brand, the model line and the retail positioning belong to the brand owner, and the conditions a dealer has to meet are the brand owner's to set: authorised programmes typically require territory approval, display space, a credit line and a stocking commitment, along with volume terms. The applications show the shape of it — Bintelli's asks for a storefront address, number of employees and how many golf carts you sold in the last 12 months, each marked required (read 24 September 2026) — while the terms themselves are settled in the course of dealing with the brand rather than published. Under your own brand the carts carry your name and you choose the configuration for your market, and the things a programme fixes on your behalf — specification, lead time, parts stock, marketing, importing — become yours to decide and yours to pay for. Neither is right in general. An authorised programme suits a dealer who needs assembled stock quickly and values inherited recognition; an own brand suits a dealer who is already selling and wants the equity and the configuration control to be theirs.
I already carry another brand. Do I have to drop it to start my own?
It depends on your existing agreement, so confirm that it permits an own-brand line before you order or display a sample — some dealer agreements restrict what else you may stock, and that is a question about the contract you signed rather than one we can answer. If it is permitted, you do not have to decide the whole question at once: a first custom order here can be a single branded sample rather than a container, so you can run one cart with your own name on it alongside the line you already sell and let the floor tell you what it earns. If it earns the space, a repeat order ships by the container and can mix models, so the range widens without one order resting on a single configuration.
What do I give up by not being an authorised dealer?
Three things worth naming plainly. Access to finished units that already exist somewhere you can reach, which a production run cannot compress into the current month however it is organised — ask any programme how and from where its carts reach you, because that is the brand's arrangement and not ours to describe. A name your market may already know, which under your own brand you would be building instead. And whatever support the brand runs for its dealers, which each brand sets out itself and is worth reading in the current version. We would rather you weigh those before a deposit than discover them after one — if carts on your floor this month is the requirement, buy from whoever already has them near you and come back when you are planning a season.
What does a brand's dealer portal actually give a dealer?
It varies by brand and the terms are the brand's to state, so read the current ones rather than ours. As one published example, Evolution Electric Vehicles describes its dealer portal as covering technical support, a searchable knowledge base that includes warranty information, order management with order status, returns and deliveries, downloadable brand assets, and deals — and states that announcements and deals appear in the portal first. Registration asks dealers to use a work email and to select the correct region. We read that page on 24 September 2026. That is a substantial set of dealer support, and it is worth reading the current version for whichever brand you are considering rather than taking our summary for it.
How does territory protection work if I build my own brand?
The question changes shape rather than being answered, and it is worth understanding why. Protected territory exists in a branded programme because two dealers in the same market end up holding the identical cart under the identical name, so price becomes the only thing left to compete on and the brand owner has to referee it with territory rules. Under your own brand that situation does not arise: your carts carry your name and your configuration, and the dealer three towns over is not selling them because they are not his to sell. To be explicit, that is an explanation of why the problem changes, not an offer of protection — we are not publishing a territory promise here. Whatever any supplier tells you about territory, treat it as unreal until it is written into the contract.
Want to see one with your name on it first?
Tell us the market, the configuration and the delivery address, and we will come back with a quotation for a single branded sample.