Challenge taken up by XERIC

Range limitation is one of the major drawbacks of electric vehicles. It is due to the limited storage capacity of electric batteries. The main challenge taken up by XERIC is to extend the range of electric vehicles by developing a novel climate control system. The new climate control system should minimise the use of energy and increase the range of electric vehicles without sacrificing passengers’ comfort. In extremely hot or cold weather, up to 50% of the capacity of the battery is absorbed by the climate control systems currently in use. So XERIC’s challenge is to extend the range of electric vehicles in all weather conditions.

XERIC is expected to extend the range of electric vehicles
in all weather conditions.

Funding Context

XERIC is a European Research and Innovation project. It received funding from the European Union’s H2020 research and inovation programme. The project answered a Call for Proposals entitled “Green Vehicles” released in 2014. Several topics make up this call, XERIC being in the second one, “GV2”:
GV.1-2014. Next generation of competitive lithium ion batteries to meet customer expectations;
GV.2-2014. Optimised and systematic energy management in electric vehicles;
GV.3-2014. Future natural gas powertrains and components for cars and vans;
GV.4-2014. Hybrid light and heavy duty vehicles;
GV.5-2014. Electric two-wheelers and new light vehicle concepts;
GV.6-2015. Powertrain control for heavy-duty vehicles with optimised emissions;
GV.7-2014. Future natural gas powertrains and components for heavy duty vehicles;
GV.8-2015. Electric vehicles’ enhanced performance and integration into the transport system and the grid.
For more information, go to: Smart, Green and Integrated Transport

XERIC is part of the sub-call entitled “Optimised and systematic
energy management in electric vehicles”.

Expected Impact

XERIC’s innovations, when brought to the market, should renew consumer interest in electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid cars and thus boost the growth of the electric vehicles market.

Let’s have a look at the potential geographical and economic size of the market for electric vehicles and market trends (electric vehicles considered include passenger car plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and battery electric vehicles): The global stock of electric vehicles (i.e., registrations & stock of EVs) in 2012 was about 180,000 passenger cars (i.e., about 0.02 % of total passenger car) of which about 113,000 were registered in 2012.