Environmental and financial impacts of adopting alternative vehicle technologies and relocation strategies in station-based one-way carsharing: An application in the city of Lisbon, Portugal

Abstract In this study we propose a cost-benefit analysis method to assess the performance of carsharing systems with conventional and alternative vehicles, taking into account the different stakeholders’ financial costs as well as the environmental benefits. The method was applied to simulated mobility data for the case study of Lisbon, Portugal. Regarding operators’ annual profit, only diesel vehicles promised a profit of 544 thousand euros per year without vehicle relocations, and 646 thousand with relocations. Electric vehicles would lead to estimated losses of 1.1 million euros per year without vehicle relocations, which could go down to 890 thousand euros of financial losses with relocations. Fleets using two-seater gasoline vehicles can also achieve positive profit if they implement relocations. When analyzing the performance of carsharing systems with no relocations, only electric vehicles showed positive environmental impacts. However, when vehicles are relocated, the environmental benefit decreases because of the added kilometers. Additional scenarios for carsharing with electric vehicles were performed: free parking charges; duty-free costs; and depreciation costs similar to those of diesel vehicles. All the analyses showed positive annual net profits for the operator, indicating that policies might promote the use of cleaner vehicles. From the travellers’ perspective, the overall balance is always negative because the price paid for the carsharing system is not offset by the savings of not using a private car or public transport. This happened even if we add the more subjective benefit of the added utility of an extra transport option to the current mode choice.