The Pope goes electric! Pope Francis makes first appearance in battery-powered ‘G-Wagon popemobile’ during trip to Corsica

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 with a swiveling, heated seat and backrest for the Holy Father and was delivered to him last week, just in time for its first use on Sunday.

The white vehicle, built by Mercedes-Benz, is the first fully electric Popemobile and also has a special place for the Swiss Guard to protect the Pope – who turns 88 on Tuesday.

Moreover, the modified G-Wagon not only looks great, it is also environmentally friendly – ​​a matter close to the Pope’s heart.

The new engine not only has heating compartments to keep His Holiness warm as he greets Catholic pilgrims on cold winter days in St. Peter’s Square, but also a retractable roof that will protect Pope Francis from the elements.

And of course, the seat has been raised so that the public has a better chance to get a look at the Pope as he drives by on his new wheels.

Two white and yellow Vatican flags fly on either side of the bonnet of the Mercedes G-Class and the license plate is SCV1 – which stands for Status Civitatis Vaticanae, Latin for Vatican City.

The pearly 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.

CEO Ola Kallenius and engineers working on the special project personally presented Pope Francis with the custom-made vehicle at the Vatican.

Producing cars for the papacy was a “special honor 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 move to electric popemobiles was in line with Francis’ move to make the environment one of the key issues of his papacy since becoming pope in 2013.

Pope Francis used the white G-Wagon on Sunday during the first ever papal visit to the French island of Corsica.

Speaking at the end of a Mediterranean conference on popular piety, Papa Francescu, as he is known in Corsican, described a concept of secularity “that is not static and fixed, but evolving and dynamic,” capable of adapting to “unforeseen situations” and to promote cooperation ‘between civil and ecclesiastical authorities’.

The pope said expressions of popular piety, including processions and the communal recitation of the Holy Rosary, can nourish “constructive citizenship” on the part of Christians.

At the same time, he warned against seeing such manifestations only in terms of folklore or even superstition.

During informal remarks, the pope recounted his experiences attending a festival in northern Argentina before his pontificate, where he witnessed the importance of popular piety for the faithful “who seek healthy complicity.”

Following the Pope’s arrival in his new, eco-friendly wheels, many recalled the 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 groundbreaking statement in 2023 when he criticized slow climate action, then became the first pope to personally attend United Nations climate talks.

Last month its environmental record was called into question when it emerged that a 200-year-old pine tree growing in a forest in northern Italy would be cut down and given to the Vatican as a Christmas tree.

A petition calling for the preservation of the more than 30-meter-high pine tree, nicknamed The Green Giant, was signed by more than 53,000 people.

The Mercedes Popemobile is not the first electric vehicle used by the Vatican.

In 2012, the French car manufacturer Renault presented Francis’s predecessor, Benedict XVI, an electric passenger car.

Earlier this year, the pope was seen struggling to get onto his last popemobile after an audience at the Vatican, as persistent breathing and mobility problems continued to affect the 87-year-old pontiff.