Abstract: Per-use rental models had experienced rapid growth in China from 2016 to 2019, many electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers adopted per-use rentals, even with profit loss. There are three explanations for the motivations of the manufacturers’ adoption of per-use rental: First, low EV technology level is not fit for selling models. Second, for acquiring EV subsidies, manufacturers sell EVs to per-use rental operators of their own to meet the policy requirements. Third, servicizing provides the incentives for the adoption of per-use rentals. In this paper, the business model adoption strategy is investigated. Combining three incentive factors of policy, technology and servicizing, an evolutionary analysis framework is established based on a comparison of business models, in which the government makes decisions on subsidies and manufacturers decide on business models. The adoption strategy of per-use rentals is analyzed, the interaction among subsidies, technology and per-use rentals is revealed. The conclusions show that, the pooling effect in servicizing and the level of EV technology are the two basic dimensions to determine business model adoption: the pooling effect determines the adoption of per-use rentals, the level of technology determines the adoption of the selling model. There exist interactions between the two basic dimensions, that is, the pooling effect can supplement and replace the technology factors. The EV subsidies change the manufacturers’ decisions on business models by influencing two basic dimensions. The fundamental motivation for manufacturers to adopt per-use rentals is the pooling effect brought by servicizing, rather than subsidies. When the pooling effect is strong, per-use rentals could improve consumer surplus and EV demand at the same time.

Key words: per-use rentals; electric vehicle; business models; evolutionary game