Promoting new energy commercial vehicle (NECV) adoption in freight transportation remains challenging, as a sluggish freight market dampens logistics service providers' (LSPs) willingness to invest and exacerbates overcapacity pressure on manufacturers. While online freight platforms (OFPs) can enhance vehicle utilization and stimulate demand, how manufacturers and platforms should cooperate to effectively promote NECVs remains unclear. This study developed a stylized game-theoretic supply chain model comprising a manufacturer, an OFP, and LSPs to examine strategic sales cooperation. We analyzed three settings—no cooperation, agency cooperation, and reselling cooperation—under manufacturer-led and platform-led power structures. The results showed that cooperation does not universally improve outcomes. The manufacturer generally prefers the reselling mode, whereas the OFP's preference depends on competitive intensity and unit freight service revenue, potentially leading to a prisoner's dilemma. Compared with the agency mode, the reselling mode better aligns incentives and can enhance market expansion but may intensify channel competition. Moreover, power structure plays a critical role: when the platform controls sufficient freight demand, a platform-led structure more effectively incentivizes service improvement and market expansion; otherwise, a manufacturer-led structure helps restrain opportunistic platform behavior. From an environmental perspective, although reselling improves utilization-phase benefits, it does not necessarily enhance lifecycle sustainability unless production-phase emissions are substantially reduced. These insights provide strategic guidance for promoting NECVs and integrating freight and vehicle sales.
Citation: Xu Jing, Wang Nengmin, Wei Bin, Jiang Bin. Aligning freight services and vehicle sales: Strategic cooperation for new energy commercial vehicle adoption[J]. Journal of Industrial and Management Optimization, 2026, 22(7): 3188-3218. doi: 10.3934/jimo.2026117
Promoting new energy commercial vehicle (NECV) adoption in freight transportation remains challenging, as a sluggish freight market dampens logistics service providers' (LSPs) willingness to invest and exacerbates overcapacity pressure on manufacturers. While online freight platforms (OFPs) can enhance vehicle utilization and stimulate demand, how manufacturers and platforms should cooperate to effectively promote NECVs remains unclear. This study developed a stylized game-theoretic supply chain model comprising a manufacturer, an OFP, and LSPs to examine strategic sales cooperation. We analyzed three settings—no cooperation, agency cooperation, and reselling cooperation—under manufacturer-led and platform-led power structures. The results showed that cooperation does not universally improve outcomes. The manufacturer generally prefers the reselling mode, whereas the OFP's preference depends on competitive intensity and unit freight service revenue, potentially leading to a prisoner's dilemma. Compared with the agency mode, the reselling mode better aligns incentives and can enhance market expansion but may intensify channel competition. Moreover, power structure plays a critical role: when the platform controls sufficient freight demand, a platform-led structure more effectively incentivizes service improvement and market expansion; otherwise, a manufacturer-led structure helps restrain opportunistic platform behavior. From an environmental perspective, although reselling improves utilization-phase benefits, it does not necessarily enhance lifecycle sustainability unless production-phase emissions are substantially reduced. These insights provide strategic guidance for promoting NECVs and integrating freight and vehicle sales.
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Xu Jing, Wang Nengmin, Wei Bin, Jiang Bin. Aligning freight services and vehicle sales: Strategic cooperation for new energy commercial vehicle adoption[J]. Journal of Industrial and Management Optimization, 2026, 22(7): 3188-3218. doi: 10.3934/jimo.2026117
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