Cost–benefit assessment and implications for service pricing of electric taxies in China

• Develop total life cycle cost model for electric taxies of two power supply models.
• Apply the Monte Carlo model to determine the probability of the total life cycle cost of electric taxi models.
• Compare the profitability of electric taxies and gasoline taxies with cost–benefit model.
• Analyze the sensitivity of service pricing in scenarios of gasoline price increasing, electricity price increasing, and battery cost decreasing.
• Conclude that the electric taxi can be profitable when the gasoline price increases and the battery cost decreases.

This paper presents a methodology to assess the cost–benefit and develop the service pricing strategy of electric taxies in Shanghai, China. There are 4 kinds of electric taxi models being structured. The total life cycle cost model for cost–benefit assessment is developed with consideration of purchase cost, usage cost, and other operation cost. Three scenarios are defined, including gasoline price increasing, electricity price increasing, and battery cost decreasing. Then the service pricing model is proposed. The results indicate that the profitability of battery-swapping model is higher than that of the charging model. The taxi models with longer driving range have greater profitability than those with shorter driving range. With annually increasing rate of 8% of gasoline price, the electric taxi will obtain the same profit with the gasoline taxi in 5 years. With annually increasing rate of 20% of electricity price, the service price of electric taxies will rise by 1%. When the battery cost decreases by 49%, the service price of electric taxies will be 4% lower than that of gasoline taxies.