Vehicle relocation in one-way station-based electric carsharing systems: A comparative study of operator-based and user-based methods

This paper compares the efficiency of two relocation methods in a one-way station-based electric car sharing system. First, an operator-based model is considered where relocations are managed by a dedicated crew. This is compared to a user-based model where price incentives are used to balance demand and supply. Two types of pricing schemes are investigated: A trip-based and a station-based scheme. The ε-optimal and iterated local search algorithms are proposed to handle nonlinear demand. The performances of all methods are explored in a realistic case study from Suzhou, China.