Pope Francis made his first appearance in the battery-powered G-Wagon Popemobile during a trip to Corsica.
The vehicle, specially designed to have a heated swivel seat and a handrail for the Holy Father, was delivered to him last week, just in time for its first use on Sunday.
Built by Mercedes-Benz, the white vehicle is the first fully electric popemobile and also has a special place for the Swiss Guard to protect the pontiff, who turns 88 on Tuesday.
Plus, the modified G-Wagon not only looks fantastic, but it’s also environmentally friendly, a cause close to the Pope’s heart.
In addition to having heating compartments to keep His Holiness warm as he greets Catholic pilgrims on cold winter days in St. Peter’s Square, the new engine also has a retractable roof that will protect Pope Francis from the elements.
And of course, the seat is raised so the crowd has a better chance of catching a glimpse of the pontiff as he passes by in his new vehicle.
Two white and yellow Vatican flags fly on either side of the hood of the Mercedes G-Class and its license plate is SCV1, which stands for Status Civitatis Vaticanae, Latin for the State of Vatican City.
The pearl-white popemobile is powered by an electric motor that the Pope “is adapted to the particularly low speeds required for public appearances,” Mercedes said.
Pope Francis arrives to pay his respects to the small statue of the Madonuccia (patron saint of Ajaccio) in Ajaccio, as part of his trip to the French island of Corsica, on December 15, 2024.
The modified G-Wagon not only looks fantastic, but is also environmentally friendly – a cause close to the Pope’s heart
The seat is raised so that the crowd has a better chance of catching a glimpse of the pontiff as he passes by in his new vehicle.
The new engine comes with a new heated swivel seat and handrails.
CEO Ola Kallenius and engineers working on the special project delivered the custom-made vehicle to Pope Francis in person at the Vatican.
Producing automobiles for the papacy was a “special honor for our company,” Kallenius said.
According to the company, the Stuttgart-based automaker has supplied popemobiles to the Vatican for the past 45 years.
The switch to electric popemobiles was in line with Francis’ decision to make the environment one of the main themes of his papacy since he became pontiff in 2013.
Pope Francis used the white G-Wagon on Sunday during the first papal visit to the French island of Corsica.
In his speech at the closing of a Mediterranean conference on popular piety, Pope Francescu, as he is called in Corsican, described a concept of secularity “that is neither static nor fixed, but evolutionary and dynamic”, which can adapt to “unforeseen situations” and promote cooperation ‘between civil and ecclesial authorities’.
The pontiff said expressions of popular piety, including processions and the communal praying of the Holy Rosary, “can nurture ‘constructive citizenship’ on the part of Christians.”
At the same time, he warned that such manifestations should not be seen solely in terms of folklore or even superstition.
Pope Francis visits Corsica, a bastion of the Catholic faith, and locals eagerly await the first trip by a pontiff to the French Mediterranean island.
During his first papal visit to Corsica, Pope Francis will attend a Conference on Popular Religiosity in the Mediterranean, meet with the clergy and religious of the island and preside over the Holy Mass
The pearl-white popemobile is powered by an electric motor that the Pope “is adapted to the particularly low speeds required for public appearances,” Mercedes said.
CEO Ola Kallenius and engineers working on the special project delivered the custom-made vehicle to Pope Francis in person at the Vatican.
The Pope arrived in style in his new white G-Wagon Popemobile
The Stuttgart-based automaker has been supplying popemobiles to the Vatican for 45 years, according to the company.
In improvised statements, the Pope recounted his experience attending a festival in northern Argentina before his pontificate, where he witnessed the importance of popular piety for the faithful ‘who seek a healthy complicity.’
After the Pope arrived on his new ecological wheels, many remembered when he made an urgent call for climate action in his 2015 encyclical ‘Laudato Si’, in which he urged global solidarity to act together to protect ‘our common home’ .
Francis updated his landmark thesis in 2023 when he criticized the slow pace of climate action and then became the first pope to attend United Nations climate talks in person.
Last month, its environmental credentials were called into question when it emerged that a 200-year-old pine tree growing in a forest in northern Italy was to be felled and given as a Christmas tree to the Vatican.
More than 53,000 people signed a petition calling for the 30-metre-high conifer, nicknamed The Green Giant, to be saved.
The Mercedes popemobile is not the first electric vehicle used by the Vatican.
French automaker Renault gifted Francis’s predecessor, Benedict XVI, an electric minivan in 2012.
Earlier this year, the Pope was seen struggling to board his latest popemobile after an audience at the Vatican, as persistent respiratory and mobility problems continued to plague the 87-year-old pontiff.
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