Optimal Pricing for Electric Vehicle Parking Duration under Uncertainty

The growing adoption of Electric Vehicles (EVs) has led to a rise in demand for public Charging Points (CPs), resulting in congestion in terms of availability. This study suggests implementing a pricing strategy with the objective of optimizing the utilization of CPs, in order to tackle the aforementioned issue. The policy entails assessing a fixed overstay fee for the EV users whose parking duration exceeds a pre-set threshold, thereby encouraging the EV users with a lower parking duration to charge which enables to free up CPs for other EV users. The study incorporates the uncertainty of parking duration upon arrival into the decision to use a CP, applying the expected utility hypothesis. The expected profit is derived using a multiclass queueing model, which captures the heterogeneity in the charging need and parking duration estimated by the EV users. Numerical analysis is conducted to determine the optimal pricing values, enabling a Charging Point Operator (CPO) to maximize the expected profit. The results show, on a realistic use-case, that an overstay fee improves the CPO’s expected profit by over 10% compared to an simple admission fee, that is when all the EV users joining the CS pay a fee, both optimally chosen by the CPO.