While he might be known for his red shoes, Pope Benedict XVI also shows his affection for green as the Vatican has received its first electric car donated by Italian electric car company NWG. This Fox News article says this is just one of the measures “The Green Pope” has taken to reduce the Vatican’s carbon footprint:
A 2-seat electric city car with a top speed of 62 mph and a range of around 86 miles per charge, the tiny car has already received its papal blessing and will be used for official Papal business around the Vatican City.
(Video courtesy of Romereports.com)
Back in 2010, the Vatican disclosed that His Holiness The Pope was keen to bless electric cars for Vatican use, but later admitted that it felt that electric cars couldn’t cope with the high amount of armor now standard on every Papal car.
Instead, it promised, a plug-in hybrid Popemobile was on the way.
Built by Mercedes-Benz, the new Popemobile combines an M-Class SUV with the plug-in hybrid technology found inside the Mercedes Vision S500 plug-in hybrid shown at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show.
Now, we won’t see His Holiness zipping around Rome in the little car, but as mentioned in the story, the hybrid Popemobile is on the way.