Menu-Based Pricing for Electric Vehicle Charging in a Mobile Charging Service for Maximizing Charging Station's Profit and Social Welfare: A Stackelberg Game

This paper presents a novel menu-based pricing strategy tailored for electric vehicle (EV) charging within the context of a mobile charging service (MCS), aiming to maximize social welfare and the profit of charging stations. Operating within the MCS framework, where mobile charging vehicles (MCVs) are deployed strategically based on EV charging requests, the primary challenge lies in effectively assigning multiple requests to each charging MCV amidst spatially and temporally random EV charging requests. To tackle this, we propose a menu-based pricing mechanism empowering EV owners to select options that best align with their preferences and requirements. Formulated as a bi-level programming problem and conceptualized as a Stackelberg game between the charging service operator and EV owners, our pricing strategy optimizes profit while considering EV owner reactions. We develop a heuristic method to solve this complex optimization problem iteratively, updating the pricing strategy based on outcomes. Overall, our menu-based pricing strategy offers dynamic demand management and optimal resource utilization, contributing to the sustainability and scalability of the MCS ecosystem.