Optimal vehicle fleet planning and collaboration under carbon neutrality: a game-theoretic perspective

AbstractThis paper studies the optimal vehicle fleet planning and collaboration problem for a fuel vehicle (FV) transport service provider, a commercial electric vehicle (CEV) transport service provider, and a carbon emission treatment agency under carbon neutrality. The FV transport service provider pays a fixed fee or a portion of its sales revenue to a carbon emission treatment agency in exchange for technology to reduce its carbon emissions, and it can adopt three strategies (i.e., no emission reduction, purchasing technology for emission reduction, and entrusting a carbon emission treatment agency). We derive each party's optimal fleet size, price, and profit in the three scenarios. Our results suggest that carbon emission reduction strategies may improve the market performance of the FV transport service provider. Then, we find no certain strategy is always preferable to another: the optimal cooperation strategy between the transport service provider and carbon emission treatment agency depends on the fixed technology fee, ratio of revenue sharing, government penalty, the transport service market potential, and consumer green preference, as well as the cost per CEV. This paper gives the transport service provider and carbon emission treatment agency a full picture of whether, when, and how to collaborate in green commerce.KEYWORDS: Carbon neutralityvehicle fleet planningcollaboration strategy selectioncommercial electric vehicle (CEV)carbon emission reduction technology AcknowledgementsThe authors thank the reviewers and editors for their critical but constructive comments.Compliance with ethical standardsWe declare that this is our original work entitled 'Optimal vehicle fleet planning under carbon neutrality: A game-theoretic perspective', which has not been submitted to any other journals.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Data availability statementAll data are included in the manuscript and can be used by anyone.Notes1 https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202107/30/WS6103e3a8a310efa1bd6659f9.html.2 https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.abm7149.3 https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement.4 https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/priorities/climate-change/20190926STO62270/what-is-carbon-neutrality-and-how-can-it-be-achieved-by-2050.5 https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202111/29/WS61a484f9a310cdd39bc78250.html.6 https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202108/06/WS610c59d1a310efa1bd666f5d.html.7 http://en.yuandaem.com/.8 https://www.sglcarbon.com/en/.9 https://climate.ec.europa.eu/eu-action/transport-emissions/road-transport-reducing-co2-emissions-vehicles/co2-emission-performance-standards-cars-and-vans_en#penalties-for-excess-emissions10 https://www.clpsec.com/about-us/11 https://www.arup.com/services/technical-consulting/transport-consultingAdditional informationFundingThis work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 72071093, 72171023 and 71971142, the RGC TRS Project (T32-707-22-N), the Philosophy and Social Sciences Planning Project of Guangdong Province under Grant GD22XGL62, and the 2019 Guangdong Special Support Talent Program–Innovation and Entrepreneurship Leading Team (China) under Grant 2019BT02S593.Notes on contributorsSu Xiu XuSu Xiu Xu is currently a professor in the School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China. He received his B.S. in mathematics from Harbin Institute of Technology (Harbin, China) in 2008 and PhD in industrial engineering from the University of Hong Kong in 2014. His major research interests are smart city, auction mechanism design, logistics and operations management. He has published more than 60 papers in such journals as International Journal of Production Research, IISE Transactions, Transportation Science, Transportation Research Part B, Transportation Research Part E, Transportation Research Part A, Transportation Research Part C, Production and Operations Management, Ecological Economics, International Journal of Production Economics, Omega, IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, etc.Yu NingYu Ning is currently a PhD candidate in the School of Business Administration, South China University of Technology (SCUT), Guangzhou, China. She has published papers in refereed journals, including IISE Transactions, Transportation Research Part A, Information & Management, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, Frontiers of Engineering Management, and Annals of Operations Research. Her research interests include digital economy and supply chain management.Huibing ChengHuibing Cheng is an associate professor in the Department of Transportation and Logistics, Guangzhou Railway Polytechnic, Guangdong, China. He received his Ph.D in the Management School, Jinan University, Guangdong, China. His major research interests are ferry service operations and game theory. He has published several papers in such journals as Applied Mathematical Modelling, Transportmetrica A, Computers & Industrial Engineering, etc.Abraham ZhangAbraham Zhang is a Senior Lecturer in Supply Chain Management and Technology at the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, UK. His research on circular supply chain and sustainability has been internationally recognised. He has over 50 academic publications in international journals including Transportation Research Part B and International Journal of Operations and Production Management. He is an Associate Editor of Business Strategy and the Environment. He is also on the Editorial Board of Transportation Research Part E.Yuan GaoYuan Gao is currently an associate professor in School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, China. He received his BS. in mathematics from Nankai University (Tianjin, China) in 2008 and PhD in mathematics from Tsinghua University (Beijing, China) in 2013. His research interests include transportation/logistics network design, scheduling problem, large scale integer programming, and uncertain programming. He has published more than 40 papers in such journals as Transportation Research Part B/C/D/E, Naval Research Logistics, European Journal of Operational Research, Omega, International Journal of Production Economics, etc.George Q. HuangGeorge Q. Huang is Chair Professor of Smart Manufacturing at Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He gained BEng and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Southeast University (China) and Cardiff University (UK) respectively. He has conducted research projects in areas of Smart Manufacturing, Logistics, and Construction Systems Analytics through IoT-enabled Cyber-Physical Internet with substantial government and industrial grants exceeding HK$150M. He collaborated closely with industries through joint projects and start-up companies. He has published extensively and his works have been widely cited by research communities. He serves as associate editors and editorial members for several international journals. He is Chartered Engineer (CEng), Fellow of ASME, HKIE, IET, CILT, and IISE.