Mercedes Makes Hybrid Popemobile For Upcoming Germany Trip

By Niels Sorrells
c. 2011 Religion News Service

BERLIN (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI has a lot of ground to cover when he heads back home to Germany this September, but thanks to a new popemobile from Mercedes, at least 30 of those kilometers (18.5 miles) will be on the greener side.

The Vatican has contracted with Mercedes for the first-ever hybrid popemobile, according to a report by business magazine Wirtschaftswoche. Citing company sources associated with the top-secret project, the magazine reported that the vehicle, based on Mercedes' M Class, would come with both a battery and a gasoline engine.

It was never considered, according to the report, to resort to an entirely battery-powered car since security threats require the pope to always have the option of a quick getaway.

The new hybrid engine would allow the popemobile to go 30 kilometers (about 18.5 miles) purely on battery power, which would require a one-hour plug-in charge. The car reportedly runs on a lithium-ion battery and a 60-horsepower hybrid engine.

Mercedes has been providing vehicles for the Vatican for eight decades. The iconic popemobile was first used in the 1980s, when Pope John Paul II yearned for a vehicle that would let him have closer contact to people during his overseas visits.

Neither the website of Mercedes, nor its parent company, Daimler, made any mention of a possible new hybrid popemobile.

September's four-day visit is Benedict's first official state visit to his native Germany since ascending to the papacy in 2005, though he has visited privately several times.

Comments

[kommanderfrost]

01:30 AM on 07/01/2011

I finally cracked it! Oh, I had to bookworm some major holes through Benedict’s bamboozlers; but creating your own personal Popemobile is no problem – here’s how you build it: the 2007 Vatican/Mercedes-Benz press releases all mention a secret unobtainium called “Vaticanmystic white finish,” and one Yahoo! Contributor Network Sailor Stooge even crowed, “it is painted in a special color created just for the Popemobile: Vatican Mystic White. No, seriously, that's the name of the paint. And no, it is not available to the public.”

That is so untrue. The color’s real name is “Designo Mysticweiss,” and it’s totally available to the public in two genuine OEM historic formulas: if you want your project painted exactly the same as Popemobiles completed before 2008, just ask for Mercedes-Benz Mystic White Pearl, Color Code #038; or, if you prefer the newer current Popemobiles with their beefed-up überflake pyrotechnics, look instead for Mercedes-Benz Designo Mystic White Pearl, Color Code #048. Don’t even bother running down to your local Mercedes dealer to start genuflecting for an Indulgence – I discovered an independent firm in New Orleans, Automotivetouchup.com, that will cheerfully sell you all the Genuine Popemobile White you’d like for the low, low, oligarch’s price of just $474.13 per gallon – primers, clearcoats, touch-up pens, and even household aerosol spray cans of the stuff (for those of you jonesing to manifest a Charisma of Krylon on your kid’s Radio Flyer) all sold separately! (^-^)V

[Keyop]

09:31 AM on 06/25/2011

Why does pope need protective vehicle? Doesnt he have faith?

[ebroadcast]

04:59 PM on 06/24/2011

What a joke

[4Mima]

04:55 PM on 06/24/2011

It's not a "symbolic gesture" but another measure taken in defence of the nature, a cause very dear to Pope Benedict XVI.

Already, in 2008, he initiated the installation of 2400 photovoltaic panels on the roof of “Sala Nervi” (Paul VI) auditorium which help save about 80 tons of oil per year.

http://ais4architecture.co.uk/?tag=photovoltaic-systems

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/environment/2007-06-05-vatican-solar-power_N.htm

More than once, the Pope called on Christians to unite to take "care of creation without squandering its resources and sharing them in a convivial manner." He said lifestyle choices were damaging the environment and making "the lives of poor people on Earth especially unbearable."

The installation of solar panels on Nervi Hall is the first of many. The Vatican plans to employ enough renewable energy to provide 20 percent of its energy requirements by 2020.

In 2009, his home in Bavaria became a solar-power generator with the proceeds going to an association that offers skills and job training to disadvantaged youths.

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0903446.htm

You don't need to be a papal fan or Catholic, you got the right to disagree with him and some of his decisions but acknowledging a "good decision" help humanity moving towards a better place.

[Mr Ruthless]

01:38 PM on 06/23/2011

Their god likes their pope so much that it bought him a bullet proof car.

[LintLass]

01:11 PM on 06/24/2011

Yaknow, I have a *lot* of gripes with this Pope and the Vatican in general, but the 'Popemobile' isn't one of them: especially not a symbolically-'Green' one.

Does it make up for the Church's history of and ongoing efforts to put in power very anti-environmental politicians in the guise of 'pro-life' and 'anti-gay?' Their at *least* decades of condemning anything environmental as tantamount to Paganism and we Pagans as being slaves of Christianity's 'Satan?'

No, it doesn't. Any more than it's truly 'Green' to be airlifting an armored hybrid all around the world.

But it *is* a symbolic gesture that 'Green' isn't 'evil,' (Well, except to Protestants who consider the Pope and Catholics 'evil and Satanic,' too, who are probably just using this to claim 'green' is evil, no matter how many LGBT people they join with Catholics to bash. Speaking of 'reap what you sow,' how d'ya like *them* apples. )

It's a symbolic gesture for the better, nonetheless. The Vatican just needs to *back it up* with something more. *

[tapeatsbill]

09:34 AM on 06/23/2011

Does the pontiff think about Nazis everyday?

Wouldn't it be weird to sit in that glass bubble and ride around amongst all those "believers?" Goldfish.

[ThinkCreeps]

09:32 AM on 06/23/2011

I guess we should be pleased that ratzinger's only pimping his ride this week.

[Indigo1941]

08:52 AM on 06/23/2011

That's a good step in an appropriate direction. Will he be visiting Dachau to offer prayers of repentence and regret? That'd be an even better step.

[fjg]

04:31 PM on 06/23/2011

"Regret and repent"...explain why, please.

[Rob y]

06:04 PM on 06/23/2011

Do you pray for repentence and regret ? It would be a good step. Mirror back to you

[dav0001]

02:08 AM on 06/23/2011

That's the big change? Big whoop. I thought maybe it would be an actual real change like the church was going to start acting like decent human beings or something like that.

[Rob y]

06:09 PM on 06/23/2011

The "church" is made up of many people, clergy, religious, everyday believers. There are good and bad people in every group. Not sure which side you belong, but your conscience reveals to you

[dav0001]

05:29 AM on 06/24/2011

I have actually met some nice people that are of various religiouns but that's not the part I mean. It's the rest that generally are the ones I don't care for. I'm not sure what your last sentence means but if you're trying to say my conscience is bothering me or something like that, no it isn't. The side I'm on is the one that has nothing at all to do with religion.

[richdibo]

10:08 PM on 06/22/2011

With the intercession of Our Lady of Fatima and a team of qualified surgeons, the pope has nothing to worry about regarding a assassination attempt. Pope John Paul II credited her with saving his life - she caused the bullet to miss his heart.

Maybe the intercession of some other saint or even god himself could have caused the bullet to to miss the saintly pope all together. But when it comes to flying bullets, you don't have a choice as to which supernatural entity will respond - you take what you can get.

I don't even know if there is a saint who specialized in thwarting the direction of deadly trajectories, such as bullets, flung knives, and grenades. Maybe after the Vatican canonizes John Paul II as a saint, they can declare him the patron saint of bullet targets and bullet wounds. Then maybe his intercession could alter the course of bullets or at least help the surgical team save lives.

[aphidavis]

10:03 PM on 06/22/2011

Just think of it as a riding vacumn cleaner.

[ManicDeep]

09:57 PM on 06/22/2011

The Pope can afford a Ferrari and if not, I'm sure a trade could be worked out. How does St. Enzo sound ? Doable ?

[John J Palazzini]

09:41 PM on 06/22/2011

I'm sure his heart yearns for his Hitler Youth days......Now he can relive at least the geography of it......

[Rob y]

06:12 PM on 06/23/2011

You prove your heart has hate. You already loose

[John J Palazzini]

06:16 PM on 06/24/2011

FACT, not fiction.

[Chinanski]

04:35 PM on 06/24/2011

Stereotypes, hate and unschooled.

[John J Palazzini]

06:15 PM on 06/24/2011

FACT, not fiction.

[Bones Rhodes]

09:34 PM on 06/22/2011

With all the hype in the AOL headline about the Pope making big changes, I though maybe there was an actual new policy about turning over pedo-priest-philes and evidence to the authorities worldwide: or at least an announcement he was starting a new line of hats.

[ahavok]

09:05 PM on 06/22/2011

The Pope will get at least 4 Hail Marys, 3 Our Fathers and an Act of Contrition per mile.