Thermal management in internal combustion engines (ICEs) strongly affects fuel consumption and pollutant emissions, especially during engine warm-up. Particularly, the oil temperature is strictly related to the organic efficiency of the vehicle: in the early phase of a driving cycle, the low temperature produces a high-viscous oil, which increases friction losses and increases fuel consumption, with respect to full thermal regimated oil. Usually, the oil and coolant thermal behaviours are interconnected, thanks to a coolant/oil heat exchanger in the engine. In this study, a prototyped electrical coolant pump has been applied and integrated in a small SUV vehicle, replacing the original mechanical unit. An off-board experimental campaign allowed a complete hydraulic characterization of the cooling system, including thermostat operation, and led to a physically based correlation between flow rates and pressure drops in each branch. Based on these results, the pump was designed and prototyped, enabling advanced flow management strategies on board. On-road Real Driving Emissions (RDE) tests were carried out using different pump control logics. Four different control strategies have been proposed in order to reduce the warm up time of the engine and the oil. Results show that the warm-up time reduction produces also a decrease in CO, NO, THC, CH₄, and PN emissions by 15–65%, particularly during cold-start conditions. The innovation proposed can be also combined to other technological options, to further improve the thermal behaviour of the engine and increase the temperature of the oil in the early phase of a common driving cycle. Electrification also reduces parasitic losses and facilitates integration with hybrid powertrains, confirming thermal management as an effective transitional technology for improving ICE efficiency and environmental performance under real driving conditions.