An optimization framework for a light electric vehicle sharing system

The vehicle sharing systems (VSSs) are becoming more and more popular due to both financial and environmental effects. On the other hand, they face many challenges, such as inventory management of the vehicles and parking spots, imbalance of the vehicles, pricing strategies, and demand forecasting. If these are not addressed properly, the system experiences a significant loss of customers and therefore revenue. Although efficient methods to solve these problems are well-studied in the literature, with the introduction of a new type of light electric vehicles (LEV) some of the methodologies became inapplicable. The rebalancing methods constructed for conventional VSSs (bike and car sharing systems) are not convenient for the LEVs since a LEV is not as small as a bicycle, making it unsuitable for rebalancing with a truck, and has only one seat, preventing the transport of staff, which is common in car rebalancing operations. Also, demand forecasting becomes a challenging task since LEVs are allowed to be parked on any designated spot in the city. LEVs also serve for a higher portion of the population since they do not require a driving license. Moreover, as the vehicle is electric there should exist a fleet of workers who replace the batteries. This work provides a new framework for the LEV sharing system management from a wider perspective by addressing the components and the relations between these components. The proposed framework is also related to conventional VSSs.