Electric vehicle battery-charging service and operations managing under different charging station construction modes

Using electric vehicles (EVs) is considered as an effective way to reduce carbon emissions. In practice, (self) charging-mode EVs (CEVs) require a long charging time, which has led to the emergence of (battery) swapping-mode EVs (SEVs). This study first discusses whether the manufacturer should introduce SEVs and identifies the introduction conditions. Further, it investigates the impact of two construction modes (manufacturer-construction mode and commission-construction mode) of energy replenishment stations on pricing decisions, EVs demand, and profits. Finally, we optimize the government subsidy level to minimize the total capital expenditure for a specific EVs adoption target. The results reveal that introducing SEVs can bring more stations, higher retail price and charging service fee for CEVs, as well as greater demand for EVs when the unit production cost of CEVs is high. If the consumers’ preference for SEVs is low, introducing SEVs can increase profits in most cases; if the consumers’ preference for SEVs is high, introducing SEVs is detrimental to the EVs manufacturer only when the government subsidy is not too high. Comparing to the commission-construction mode, the manufacturer-construction mode can bring more stations, higher total demand for EVs, and higher total profits; meanwhile, it can lower the optimal subsidy level of the government.