30/10/2020 | Press release

New orders worth over €350 million push lifetime incoming sales volume over one-billion-euro threshold

Thanks to recent orders worth over €350 million, the Rheinmetall Group’s Automotive arm has set a new record with its newly developed electric gas pump for tank systems – the Electrical Vapor Pump, or EVAP. Three international automakers have ordered the innovative new component, which first appeared on the market in summer 2018. The vehicles they produce will be marketed in North America, Japan, China and South Korea. Coupled with orders already booked last year worth over €700 million, this brings aggregate lifetime sales volume for this environmentally sustainable system to over a billion euros just two years after its market launch.

Developed in-house, the components scrub the activated carbon casing in internal combustion engines when negative pressure is lacking in the intake cycle, making them particularly suitable for modern engines in hybrid vehicles or direct injectors. At its EVAP production sites in Fountain Inn, South Carolina, USA and the Shanghai region in China, Rheinmetall's Mechatronics division is currently carrying out the biggest project in the history of the company.

Strict regulations govern not only the emissions produced by internal combustion engines, but also those caused by their fuel supplies. In order to meet these standards, activated carbon cases are used to collect the fuel fumes when the motor comes to a standstill or during electric operation, binding these until they can be combusted in the engine. However, because the capacity of the container for storing hydrocarbon compounds is limited, the EVAP regularly scrubs this zone with fresh air.

These new pumps operate with high throughput and simultaneously low pressure, while innovative cooling of the electronics produces strong thermal resistance. This assures that the pumps operate reliably even under adverse conditions in the engine compartment. In addition, they are equipped with an integrated pressure sensor that reports the system pressure to the vehicle’s control unit.