The EU-funded research project ‘Efferest’ aims to make electric vehicles more efficient, focusing specifically on the interaction between systems and components that manage interior comfort and powertrain performance.
The project targets significant improvements in cabin comfort and drivetrain systems by the end of 2026. Considering both together ensures a holistic approach, allowing technical compromises to prioritize user needs without compromising performance or affordability, according to project participants.
The project is led by Virtual Vehicle Research GmbH. Alexander Kospach, project manager at Virtual Vehicle, explained that the systems are being improved not only individually but also interconnected. “So that any technical compromises to increase efficiency and affordability are made solely in the interest of user requirements.”
More appealing to the global market
Efferest aims to enhance Europe’s competitiveness and reinforce its industrial leadership in key digital, foundational, and emerging technologies, making electric vehicles more appealing for the global mass market.
The project began in early 2024 and runs for three years, with a budget of €4.9 million available to its eleven partners from six countries.
Alongside consortium leader Virtual Vehicle Research from Austria, participants include Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Politecnico di Torino, UZAY Tech, Silk Road Clean Energy Storage Technologies, Magna Powertrain Engineering Center Steyr, Automotive Technology Center of Galicia, the European Association of Automotive Suppliers, Bosch, and (Turkish) Togg.
Four pillars
The Efferest team seeks a leap in innovative data utilization, aiming to achieve new levels of energy efficiency already during the EV design phase. The project rests on four main pillars: user-oriented, AI-driven, holistic, and application-oriented.
User-oriented development: Efferest develops solutions and control systems to make electric vehicles more affordable, energy-efficient, comfortable, and safe. The focus is on individual user needs, supported by novel indicators to assess the overall user experience.
AI-driven system design: Adaptive digital twins, powered by AI and machine learning, will optimize energy management, thermal management of the powertrain, and interior comfort. The system dynamically adapts to user preferences, maximizing efficiency and driving comfort.
Holistic, user-centered energy management control: A key objective is the development of a Hierarchical User-Centric Control (HUC) system based on a multi-layered architecture of predictive and model-based controllers. HUC enables optimized control of the thermal system and powertrain using the digital twin.
Application-oriented demonstration: The team tests its innovations in a modified series production vehicle under real-world driving conditions and through virtual demonstrations. User-centric driving scenarios are derived from fleet data analysis to ensure a realistic assessment of CO2 reduction potential.
First results
Recently, a major milestone in the Efferest project has been achieved: a comprehensive benchmarking campaign involving three EVs, carried out under controlled thermal conditions. The goal was to investigate the critical trade-off between cabin comfort and energy consumption, an increasingly important factor in EV performance and user satisfaction.
How do EV drivers manage the trade-off between maximizing driving range and maintaining thermal comfort, and what challenges do they encounter? Get key insights from the Efferest Interview Study.
