EV startup Fisker Inc. says it will make the first all-electric popemobile, using a modified version of its forthcoming Ocean SUV. Automotive designer

Fisker is building an electric popemobile

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2021-05-21 18:30:07

EV startup Fisker Inc. says it will make the first all-electric popemobile, using a modified version of its forthcoming Ocean SUV. Automotive designer Henrik Fisker and Geeta Gupta-Fisker (his wife and Fisker Inc. co-founder) presented Pope Francis with images of the proposed design during a meeting at the Vatican on Thursday.

Those images show a white Ocean SUV with a glass cupola on top that would let the pope greet the public. The company says it will deliver the vehicle sometime next year. (The regular version of the Ocean SUV is supposed to launch near the end of 2022.)

Traditionally, the official popemobiles are made by Mercedes-Benz and have to be properly armored and outfitted with bulletproof glass. It’s not clear exactly how the Vatican would use Fisker Inc.’s electric SUV; messages to the Holy See’s press office were not immediately returned.

Still, the pope rides in all sorts of modified vehicles during his travels and has even used electric zero-emissions cars. The Vatican was gifted a Renault Kangoo electric van in 2012, but they were used for less official transport, like tooling around the Papal Palace in summer. Pope Francis was driven around in a hydrogen-powered Toyota Mirai in Japan in 2019. Mercedes-Benz has even made hybrid popemobiles for his holiness.