A mobile ad hoc network is an infrastructureless network where the nodes are free to move independently in any directions. As the nodes have limited battery power so we require energy efficient route discovery scheme. This method reduces the cost of messages and energy consumption in nodes, thereby increasing the network throughput. In mobile communication, an ad hoc network refers to a network connection recognized for a single session. During route discovery phase, generally the route request packets generated by the source arrive at the destination through multiple paths. EXERP assigns weights to those paths depending on the expected duration of their links, number of links present in the path and energy efficiency of the routers. One of the routes with highest weight is elected as optimal path for communication between the corresponding pair of source and destination nodes. Simulation results clearly establish the fact that communication through energy-efficient link-stability conscious routes significantly reduces the message cost in the network. The main reason behind this improvement is reduction in link breakage due to node movement and battery exhaustion that saves cost of flooding route_request packets which would have been otherwise required to repair the broken links. Less message cost generates less signal collision and also saves battery power of nodes preserving the network connectivity as much as possible. Hence data packet delivery ratio increases up to a great extent. All these emphasize the efficiency of EXERP over other energy-efficient protocols.