# A Tailored Pricing Strategy for Different Types of Users in Hybrid Carsharing Systems
## 4 Case Studies: Lanzhou, China
### Experiments and Results
#### 4.2.3 Performance of the Hybrid Carsharing System  
When SAVs are added to the carsharing systems only with the CSCs (named the conventional carsharing systems), what impact could it make? The performances of the conventional carsharing systems and the hybrid carsharing systems with the user clustering strategy are compared mutually. The model only with the conventional carsharing system is nearly the same as the bi-objective model in this study; the only difference is that there is only one service mode in the service mode set (\(\mathbf{W}=\{s\}\)). The solution algorithm is still the GA. The converging process is shown in Figure 5.  
The obvious advantage of the hybrid carsharing systems is that the profits could be improved. The carsharing operators can earn $85,378.79 in hybrid carsharing systems, while it is only $50,978.43 in the conventional carsharing system, mainly because more trips are satisfied in the hybrid carsharing system. As shown in Figure 6a, when the SAVs are added to the carsharing system, some CSC users are attracted by the SAVs and then turn to SAV users. Furthermore, many potential carsharing users also join in with the adoption of SAVs. Therefore, the SAVs can help the carsharing operator attract more carsharing users and is worthy of bringing in. The reason why more users are attracted to the hybrid carsharing system is complicated. We should analyze this from the perspective of CSCs and SAVs. In the hybrid carsharing system, the price discounts for CSCs are much lower than that of the conventional carsharing system. As users have more choices in the hybrid carsharing system, a lower price should be offered to retain the most CSC users. As for the price discounts of SAVs users, they are much higher than that of CSCs in the same system. In the meantime, these discounts are comparable with the price discounts of SAVs in the conventional carsharing system. It tells us that SAVs have a higher pricing power than CSCs, but it still needs to obey the basic market rule and cannot exceed the market price too much. When we put the price discounts of the conventional carsharing system and the weighted price discounts of the hybrid carsharing system together, the average price in the mixed hybrid carsharing system is lower than the price in the conventional carsharing system. When the  
Figure 5: The iteration procedure of the GA in carsharing systems with CSCs. carsharing operator provides varieties of services, users can benefit from it and finish their trips at a lower price. Further, details about the carsharing trips and price discounts for all clusters are shown in Figures 7 and 8. In Figure 7, the numbers of carsharing trips of each cluster in the conventional carsharing system and the hybrid carsharing system are all given. The losing users (cluster 2) are affected deeply by the adoption of SAVs, and a large part of them may turn into potential users (cluster 3). Meanwhile, most potential users are inclined to try SAVs in the hybrid carsharing system. The loyal users (cluster 1) not only have the courage to try SAVs, but the total number of carsharing trips is also increased. It might be because part of potential users turn into loyal users when the SAVs are added to the system. In sum, the adoption of SAVs in the carsharing system is good for loyal users and potential users. It can also speed up the process of converting the losing users into the potential users and the potential users into the loyal users. Figure 8: Price discount for each cluster in both carsharing systems. (**a**) Cluster \(1\), (**b**) Cluster 2, (**c**) Cluster 3. Figure 6: Performance of the carsharing system: (**a**) Number of carsharing trips, (**b**) Price discount. Figure 7: The number of carsharing trips for each cluster in both carsharing systems: (**a**) Cluster 1, (**b**) Cluster 2, (**c**) Cluster 3. The price discounts offered to all clusters are shown in Figure 8. At each time step, the price discount the operator provides to the SAV users is much lower than that of the CSC users in both carsharing systems.