Long-Term Leases vs. One-Off Purchases: Game Analysis on Battery Swapping Mode Considering Cascade Utilization and Power Structure

The electric vehicle industry faces intense competition and the sustainability problem. In order to obtain a differential competitive advantage, enterprises actively promote the battery swapping mode (BSM) to respond to cost pressures caused by the mismatch between demand and supply. Considering cascade utilization, the Stackelberg game models of electric vehicle supply chain under three different scenarios, in the secondary supply chain consisting of a battery manufacturer (BM) and a vehicle manufacturer (VM), were constructed, respectively. Additionally, then, through the contrastive analysis of differential power structures, the influence of power structures and related parameters on the optimal pricing strategy and enterprise profits of both parties in the supply chain were studied and compared. The conclusions show that the dominance of the supply chain determines the profit level of enterprises in BSM. Compared with VMs, the adoption of the BSM has provided BM greater profit growth. Secondly, the number of reserve batteries in the battery swapping stations and the revenue of cascade utilization are essential factors affecting the profits of battery swapping service (BSS), especially for VMs. In addition, setting a reasonable range for the pricing of BSS can achieve a win–win situation for both manufacturers.