Mechanical vs. electric coolant pumps

[Zirkus]

Hi everyone, I am conducting a small research on how many manufacturers (if any) use electric water pumps in production vehicles. So far I found that many Audi models have auxiliary electric pumps which help the main mechanical one when needed (and maybe to run for some minute after turning the engine off) and also that the Toyota Prius runs an electric pump. Apart from that i found many companies selling electric pumps to replace mechanical ones in high performance vehicles (Meziere, CSR atc.). Do you know about any production vehicle relying solely on an electric pump? I would also be interested in how the control is designed, namely if you still need a thermostat (I think yes) and how it would be adjusted so as not to conflict with controlling the pump flow rate. Thanks for any answers/tips/links!

 

[xxChrisxx]

Can't tell you how many are currently using it, and I'm not inclined to look. You can already see electric and hybrids using them, as they have the battery capacity to do so (so it's a logical step). I'm fairly sure that new efficient dynamics BMWs are running electric power steering and coolant pumps.

But in the effort to reduce parasitic drag (for emissions/fuel consumption targets) all manufacturers will be moving almost all front end auxiliary components to electric drive.

http://papers.sae.org/2004-01-0596/

 

[Zirkus]

Thank you Chris, it does indeed seem to be a trend for the future. However I haven't yet found any description of how the automatic control is implemented (PWM presumably, but that doesn't say much). Any tips where and how to look please? Googling "vehicle with electric water pump" is not too effective I have found :p As for my motivation: I want to find an electric pump with flow at least 100 litres/min from a production car of which at least 2500 pieces were sold. It doesn't look like a too hard task, but I just can't figure out how to look. Thanks again...