Pope Francis has made his first appearance in the battery-powered G-Wagon Popemobile during a trip to Corsica.
The specially-made vehicle was designed to have a rotating heated seat and handrail for the Holy Father, and was delivered to him last week, just in time for his 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 Guards to stand to protect the pontiff – who turns 88 on Tuesday.
Plus, the modified G-Wagon doesn’t just look great, it’s environmentally friendly – a cause close to the Pope’s heart.
As well as having heating compartments to keep His Holiness toasty whilst he greets Catholic pilgrims on chilly winter days in St Peter’s Square, the new motor also has a retractable roof which will protect Pope Francis from the elements.
And, of course, the seat is raised so that crowds will have a better chance of catching a glance at the pontiff as he drives by in his new set of wheels.
Two white-and-yellow Vatican flags fly on either side of the Mercedes G-Class bonnet and its registration plate is SCV1 – standing for Status Civitatis Vaticanae, Latin for Vatican City State.
The pearl-white popemobile is powered by an electric motor that is ‘adapted to the particularly low speeds required for public appearances’ by the pope, Mercedes said.
Pope Francis arrives to pay his respects to the small statue of the Madonuccia (Ajaccio’s patron saint) in Ajaccio, as part of his trip on the French island of Corsica, on December 15, 2024
The modified G-Wagon doesn’t just look great, it’s environmentally friendly – a cause close to the Pope’s heart
The seat is raised so that crowds will have a better chance of catching a glance at the pontiff as he drives by in his new set of wheels
The new motor comes with a new rotating heated seat and handrail
Chief executive Ola Kallenius and engineers working on the special project presented Pope Francis with the custom-made vehicle in person at the Vatican.
Producing cars for the papacy was a ‘special honour for our company’, Kallenius said.
The Stuttgart-based automaker has supplied the Vatican with popemobiles for the past 45 years, according to the company.
The switch to electric popemobiles was in keeping with Francis’s move to make the environment one of the main themes of his papacy since becoming pontiff in 2013.
Pope Francis used the white G-Wagon on Sunday during the first papal visit ever to the French island of Corsica.
Speaking at the close of a Mediterranean conference on popular piety, Papa Francescu, as he is called in Corsican, described a concept of secularity ‘that is not static and fixed, but evolving and dynamic,’ that can adapt to ‘unforeseen situations’ and promote cooperation ‘between civil and ecclesial authorities.’
The pontiff said that expressions of popular piety, including processions, communal prayer of the Holy Rosary, ‘can nurture `constructive citizenship’ on the part of Christians.
At the same time, he warned against such manifestations being seen only in terms of folklore, or even superstition.
Pope Francis visits Corsica, a stronghold of the Catholic faith with locals hotly anticipating the first-ever 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 Holy Mass
The pearl-white popemobile is powered by an electric motor that is ‘adapted to the particularly low speeds required for public appearances’ by the pope, Mercedes said
Chief executive Ola Kallenius and engineers working on the special project presented Pope Francis with the custom-made vehicle in person at the Vatican
The Pope arrived in style in his new white G-Wagon Popemobile
The Stuttgart-based automaker has supplied the Vatican with popemobiles for the past 45 years, according to the company
During off-the-cuff remarks, the pope relayed his experience attending a festival in northern Argentina before his pontificate where he witnessed the importance of popular piety for the faithful ‘that seeks a healthy complicity.’
Following the Pope’s arrival in his new eco-friendly wheels, many remembered when he made an urgent appeal 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 criticised slow climate action, and then became the first pope to attend the United Nations climate talks in person.
Last month, his environmental credentials were called into question when it emerged that a 200-year-old pine growing in a forest in northern Italy was to be cut down and given as a Christmas tree to the Vatican.
A petition calling for the 100ft-tall conifer, nicknamed The Green Giant, to be spared was signed by more than 53,000 people.
The Mercedes popemobile is not the first electric vehicle to be used by the Vatican.
French automaker Renault presented Francis’s predecessor, Benedict XVI, with an electric people carrier in 2012.
Earlier this year, the Pope was seen struggling to get on to his last popemobile after an audience at the Vatican, as lingering respiratory and mobility problems continued to affect the 87-year-old pontiff.
