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When Pope Francis drives through crowds during the Year of Jubilee, he will do so from a brand new, state of the art vehicle: the latest iteration of the popemobile. Mercedes-Benz, the car company that has designed all of the popemobiles, presented the Pope with the newest model on December 4 at the Vatican.
According to Vatican News, the latest model is a modified convertible electric G-Class. As with all popemobiles, the back of the car, in this case an SUV, has been gutted and replaced with a flat-bed with a chair for the pope.
The platform is sealed inside a high-ceilinged chamber surrounded by bullet-proof glass, a feature that has been standard on the popemobile since the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope St. John Paul II.
Mercedes-Benz has spent nearly a century producing vehicles for popes, as the first popemobile was built in 1930. Still, after all this time, Mercedes-Benz CEO, Ola Källenius, called it “a great honor for us, paying attention to all the Holy Father’s needs.”
The first pope to ride in a popemobile was Pope Pius XI, which makes Pope Francis just the eighth pope to ride in one.
Fitting Pope Francis' needs
The design team reportedly spent nearly a year outfitting the car to fit all of Pope Francis’ needs. For example, the previous popemobile was gas powered, but the new version is an electric vehicle. This falls in line with the Vatican’s goal of net-zero emissions by 2030, which Ola noted is a goal of Mercedes-Benz as well.
Peter Zotter, one of the developers of the G-Class, explained that the unique design of the popemobile required a reimagining of the car from the base up.
This, however, allowed them to add a variety of features to suit the pope, including: a rotating seat to better view crowds, handcrafted interior features, and now the popemobile is all-wheel drive, so that it has an easier time moving up inclines at low speeds. (The stage where the pope sits in St. Peter's Square is at the top of a small incline).
Most of all, Zotter hoped that the new popemobile "will provide the Holy Father with the comfort he needs for his travels."
