Conventional compression type air conditioners (ACs) consume a large part of the electricity of batteries on-board of electric vehicles, and that will make the cruising mileage shorter. Sorption and resorption cycles, which are intermittent, may solve this question by the energy storage phases. Both sorption and resorption cycles are analyzed and compared, and both of them have simpler structure if compared with conventional AC for that only two heat exchangers are required. The equilibrium performance analysis shows that resorption working pairs has higher energy density and coefficient of performance (COP) than that of sorption working pairs when the high temperature salt of resorption cycle is same with the halide of sorption cycle. The experimental Clapeyron curves are studied, and CaCl2-NH4Cl-NH3 has best performance. Compared with MnCl2-CaCl2-NH3 and MnCl2-NH4Cl1-NH3, the energy density and COP of CaCl2-NH4Cl-NH3 improves by 160% and 35% at least, respectively. The performance of CaCl2-NH4Cl-NH3 is also compared with that of CaCl2-NH3. They have similar smallest energy density, and CaCl2-NH4Cl-NH3 has higher COP if consider the working conditions in the whole year. The energy required for the electric car with a resorption AC is 0.23-0.265 kWh/km, which is acceptable if compared with the results of conventional AC. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.