A coolant pump for pumping a coolant for an internal combustion engine in a vehicle comprising the internal combustion engine and a central engine control unit, said coolant pump comprising: a pump shaft which is rotatably mounted in a pump housing and which is driven by the internal combustion engine via a belt drive , an impeller which is arranged on the pump shaft and accommodated in a pump chamber of the pump housing , pumping a coolant, an axial piston pump which is actuated via a wobble plate on a rear side of the impeller and which branches-off a fraction of the pumped coolant, a hydraulic circuit which extends from the axial piston pump via a proportional valve back to the pumped coolant and which includes a branch between the axial piston pump and the proportional valve as a hydraulic actuator, a regulating slide valve which adjusts the volume flow of the coolant pumped by the coolant pump and which is slidable depending on a pressure in the hydraulic circuit , a position sensor which detects a position of the regulating slide valve indicative of the volume flow of the pumped coolant and which outputs an actual value signal of the position of the regulating slide valve , characterized in that the coolant pump comprises a pump control of its own which controls the proportional valve in the hydraulic circuit on the basis of the actual value signal from the position sensor and a target value signal from the central engine control unit, wherein the desired value signal indicates i) a predetermined position of the regulating slide valve or ii) a predetermined volume flow and the speed of the internal combustion engine or coolant pump; and the pump control and the position sensor are formed as a mutual electronic component . a pump shaft which is rotatably mounted in a pump housing and which is driven by the internal combustion engine via a belt drive , an impeller which is arranged on the pump shaft and accommodated in a pump chamber of the pump housing , pumping a coolant, an axial piston pump which is actuated via a wobble plate on a rear side of the impeller and which branches-off a fraction of the pumped coolant, a hydraulic circuit which extends from the axial piston pump via a proportional valve back to the pumped coolant and which includes a branch between the axial piston pump and the proportional valve as a hydraulic actuator, a regulating slide valve which adjusts the volume flow of the coolant pumped by the coolant pump and which is slidable depending on a pressure in the hydraulic circuit , a position sensor which detects a position of the regulating slide valve indicative of the volume flow of the pumped coolant and which outputs an actual value signal of the position of the regulating slide valve , characterized in that the coolant pump comprises a pump control of its own which controls the proportional valve in the hydraulic circuit on the basis of the actual value signal from the position sensor and a target value signal from the central engine control unit, wherein the desired value signal indicates i) a predetermined position of the regulating slide valve or ii) a predetermined volume flow and the speed of the internal combustion engine or coolant pump; and the pump control and the position sensor are formed as a mutual electronic component . <EOS>