Since June 2025, a growing list of automakers building electric vehicles for Southeast Asia, and, as of this month, Hong Kong, have turned to Carro, though the specifics differ from brand to brand. Some appointed Carro as their authorized retailer outright. Others use it as a wholesale channel into an existing dealer network. At least one relationship is documented only as a broader “platform partnership,” with the details harder to pin down. What ties them together says less about EVs than it does about what a decade-old ecosystem business is now capable of doing for the first time: selling the cars themselves, a capability layered onto years of financing, insuring, and moving the used ones already on the road.

Carro has not been just a marketplace for years. Financing, warranties, and insurance already make up most of its gross profit, built on AI-assisted pricing and inspection infrastructure the company spent a decade refining for cars it did not manufacture, in markets where it mostly had no formal relationship with the automakers behind them. What that ecosystem never included, across ten years of operating it, was a retail agreement with a single automaker, electric or otherwise.

Electric vehicles closed that gap, and closed it quickly, though not in a uniform way. Zeekr (June 2025, Malaysia) and Dongfeng (February 2026, Singapore and Malaysia) named Carro their authorized retailer outright [1][2][6]. Jaecoo and Chery followed in Indonesia through a hybrid retail-and-wholesale arrangement, supplying the same independent dealer network Carro had previously competed against for used-car inventory [7]. Wuling and JMEV became the newest additions in September 2026, retailed directly out of a flagship showroom in Hong Kong [9]. BYD and Exeed are harder to pin down: Carro has called itself their “regional platform partner” without further specifics, and in at least one of those brands’ home markets, a separate distributor has held the formal dealer rights since 2022 [3][10]. Different as the arrangements are, the direction is consistent: automaker after automaker has turned to Carro for something it could not supply in the region on its own, first across Southeast Asia and now in Hong Kong too.

Fifteen Months, Five Milestones

The sequence is worth laying out in order, because each step depended on the one before it.

June 2025: Zeekr, Malaysia. Geely’s premium EV brand named Carro its authorized retailer in Malaysia, with showrooms planned for Bangsar, Penang, and Seremban [1]. It was Carro’s first formal retail agreement with any automaker in its ten-year history, electric or otherwise.

September 2025: Cool Japan Fund. Japan’s sovereign fund invested $60 million in Carro to grow demand for Japanese used cars and plug-in hybrids across its Asia Pacific markets, a bet that named Carro, rather than a Japanese automaker, as the platform best placed to defend that demand [4]. The round closed alongside record FY2025 financials: S$1.2 billion in revenue and S$149 million in gross profit, with positive EBITDA of S$43 million [5].

February 2026: Dongfeng, Singapore and Malaysia. Carro added its second EV brand, launching Dongfeng’s 007 sedan, VIGO compact SUV, and BOX hatchback through new showrooms in Singapore and Malaysia [2][6]. Fong Hon Sum, Carro’s CEO of International Marketplace, framed the appointment as a continuation rather than a debut: “As early proponents of EVs and NEVs, we’re confident of our experience and expertise in this sector, be it with inspections, repairs, and maintenance, and our customers can feel assured when they pick Carro as their dealer of choice” [6]. Volt Auto founder Soh Ming, Dongfeng’s regional partner, cited Carro’s “regional footprint and data-driven capabilities” as the reason for the choice [6].

Through mid-2026: BYD and Exeed. By July 2026, chief executive Aaron Tan characterized Carro as a “regional platform partner” to BYD and Exeed alongside Zeekr, part of a push toward more than ten brands globally by the end of the year [3]. Unlike the Zeekr, Dongfeng, and Hong Kong deals, no independent dealer-appointment announcement for either brand has surfaced, and BYD’s own authorized distributor in Malaysia, Sime Darby Motors, has held that role since 2022 [10], suggesting Carro’s role with BYD and Exeed, wherever it specifically lies, looks more like a wholesale or software relationship than an authorized retail one.

August 2026: Jaecoo and Chery, Indonesia. Carro added Chery and its Jaecoo sub-brand to the roster, retailing them into Indonesia through what Tan termed a capital-lighter wholesale model, supplying the same independent retail network the company had previously competed against for used-car inventory [7]. “Retailing Jaecoo and Chery into that growth curve, rather than continuing to compete for used-vehicle inventory in a segment where margins were already capped, puts Indonesia on the fastest-growing part of the market,” Tan said [7].

September 2026: Hong Kong. Carro opened a flagship multi-brand EV showroom on the seventh floor of the BMW Building in To Kwa Wan, extending the same retail-agreement pattern beyond Southeast Asia for the first time. The showroom carries Wuling’s Darion EV, JMEV’s Ewind and EV3, and Jaecoo’s J5, J6, and J7 PHEV, with 500 Darion units earmarked specifically for Hong Kong’s ride-hailing sector as the trade moves toward legalisation [9]. “This showroom is more than a display – it’s a one-stop hub designed to support drivers, fleets, and partners as Hong Kong transitions into a new era of sustainable mobility,” said Carro Hong Kong COO Yip Luke [9].

Five separate deals, several different shapes, one consistent pattern: whether the arrangement was full retail rights, wholesale supply, or something looser still, each of these automakers came to Carro because it could move faster than the alternative.

from paultan.org

5 Things We Learned from the EV Journey of Carro

1. Legacy franchise networks were built to keep new entrants like Carro out. Chinese EV brands didn’t have that problem. Japanese and Korean automakers built their Southeast Asian retail networks over decades, through exclusive franchise agreements that assign a market to one incumbent distributor, often a family-owned conglomerate with a multi-generational relationship to the brand. Those agreements were never up for renegotiation because a marketplace platform showed up with better data; there was no version of the last ten years in which Carro could plausibly have become Toyota’s authorized retailer in Malaysia. Many of the Chinese and Chinese-owned EV brands that have turned to Carro arrived with the opposite problem: strong products, aggressive pricing, and, in the specific markets where Carro operates, no established retail network of their own yet. Aaron Tan has argued that EV manufacturers are more open to appointing new retail partners than legacy franchise networks, precisely because most of them are choosing a Southeast Asian partner for the first time rather than defending one they already have [3].
2. “Partnering with Carro” doesn’t mean the same thing twice. Zeekr and Dongfeng named Carro their authorized retailer outright. Wuling and JMEV are retailed directly out of Carro’s own flagship showroom in Hong Kong. Jaecoo and Chery arrived in Indonesia through a hybrid retail-and-wholesale arrangement, with Carro supplying the same independent dealer network it once competed against for used-car inventory. BYD and Exeed are looser still, tied to Carro only through a “regional platform partnership” that doesn’t map onto any of the above, and in at least one of those brands’ home markets, a separate distributor has held the formal dealer rights since 2022. Whatever number Tan lands on by year-end, it won’t be counting the same kind of commitment eight times over.
3. What Carro sells automakers is trust, not shelf space. A decade of AI-assisted valuation, computer vision inspection, and underwriting infrastructure was built to solve one problem: getting buyers to trust a used car with no factory warranty behind it. Pointed at a new EV instead of a used one, the same tools solve a related but distinct problem: getting buyers to trust an unfamiliar brand rather than an unfamiliar vehicle history. Fong Hon Sum’s comment about inspections, repairs, and maintenance experience captures Carro’s actual credential for the job: “As early proponents of EVs and NEVs, we’re confident of our experience and expertise in this sector, be it with inspections, repairs, and maintenance, and our customers can feel assured when they pick Carro as their dealer of choice” [6].
4. Every EV Carro retails today is a used EV it plans to resell in three to five years. A car Carro retails today as an authorized Zeekr or Dongfeng partner becomes, in three to five years, a used EV entering the exact secondary market Carro was originally built to serve, complete with the battery-health and residual-value questions that have made used EVs harder to price with confidence than used combustion vehicles [8]. Carro now sits on both sides of that transaction, with financing, warranty, and insurance products attached at both ends. Those attached products are where the money actually is: financing, warranties, and insurance already account for more than 70% of the company’s gross profit [3], and a financing product or a warranty subscription attaches the same way whether the car underneath it is a used Corolla or a new Dongfeng BOX.
5. Carro’s growth no longer runs through a single lever. Before the EV wave, Carro’s growth was gated by how much used-car inventory it could source, verify, and turn over across its markets. That lever still matters, but each new EV brand it adds is now a second, largely independent one, set by automaker decisions rather than local car-ownership cycles. It also hands Carro a workable answer to a question every used-car marketplace eventually confronts: what happens once used-EV supply outpaces the tools built around combustion-engine assumptions. Tan’s target of ten-plus brands by the end of 2026 is worth watching, though what counts as a “brand” in that tally is doing real work: an authorized retail agreement is a different commitment than a wholesale line or a platform relationship, and Tan’s own count likely mixes all three.

Whatever shape the next deal takes, the infrastructure behind it is the same one Carro spent a decade building for cars it never manufactured.

References

1. paultan.org, “Zeekr Malaysia appoints Carro as authorised dealer — to start with Bangsar, Penang, Seremban showrooms,” June 16, 2025. https://paultan.org/2025/06/16/zeekr-malaysia-appoints-carro-as-authorised-dealer-to-start-with-bangsar-penang-seremban-showrooms/
2. Carro Singapore Blog, “Dongfeng EVs now at Carro Singapore: Exclusive launch offers on the 007, VIGO and BOX,” February 2, 2026. https://carro.co/sg/blog/dongfeng-evs-now-at-carro-singapore-exclusive-launch-offers-on-the-007-vigo-and-box/
3. Paulo Joquino, “Looking Under the Hood of Carro in 2026,” Insignia Business Review, July 30, 2026. https://review.insignia.vc/2026/07/30/carro/
4. Han-Ming Lee, “Carro raises USD60 million in a round led by Cool Japan Fund to accelerate demand of Japanese cars across Asia Pacific,” Carro Blog / PR Newswire, September 17, 2025. https://carro.co/sg/blog/carro-raises-usd60-million-cool-fund-japan
5. “Carro Posts Record Revenues and Gross Profit for FY2025, Closes US$60m Strategic Investment Led by Cool Japan Fund,” The Manila Times / PR Newswire, October 30, 2025. https://www.manilatimes.net/2025/10/30/tmt-newswire/pr-newswire/carro-posts-record-revenues-and-gross-profit-for-fy2025-closes-us60m-strategic-investment-led-by-cool-japan-fund/2211790
6. PR Newswire, “Carro deepens its Brand New Car strategy, expands product line as it becomes Dongfeng Motor Corporation’s newest authorised dealer in Singapore and Malaysia,” February 9, 2026. https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/carro-deepens-its-brand-new-car-strategy-expands-product-line-as-it-becomes-dongfeng-motor-corporations-newest-authorised-dealer-in-singapore-and-malaysia-302682353.html
7. Paulo Joquino, “Breaking Through the Market Ceiling,” Insignia Business Review, August 20, 2026. https://review.insignia.vc/2026/08/20/carro-indonesia/
8. Paulo Joquino, “The EV Evolution in Asia: How Tech Ecosystems Might Sustain the Transition,” Insignia Business Review, March 24, 2026. https://review.insignia.vc/2026/03/24/ev/
9. paultan.org, “Carro opens flagship multi-brand EV showroom in Hong Kong – 500 Wuling Darion EVs for ride-hailing market,” September 8, 2026. https://paultan.org/2026/09/08/carro-opens-flagship-multi-brand-ev-showroom-in-hong-kong-500-wuling-darion-evs-for-ride-hailing-market/
10. paultan.org, “BYD officially coming to Malaysia with Sime Darby Motors as distributor – Atto 3 SUV, e6 MPV EVs first,” September 28, 2022. https://paultan.org/2022/09/28/byd-officially-coming-to-malaysia-with-sime-darby-motors-as-distributor/