There will only be electric cars in the Vatican City State in the near future. This is what authorities are targeting. And to help them achieve the goal, Volkswagen will deliver around 40 EVs next year as part of the Vatican’s plan to reduce carbon emissions.
Almost 40 ID.3, ID.4, and ID.5 examples will arrive in the Vatican City State at the beginning of next year. The move is part of the decarbonization plan that the VCS rolled out, in an attempt to make its entire fleet climate-neutral by 2030.
It is based on the Ecological Conversion 2030 program, which aims to reduce the carbon dioxide footprint of the state’s fleet. Therefore, all cars will be progressively replaced by electric ones.
Volkswagen is one of the partners chosen for this goal, together with Skoda, which also supplies electric cars to the state. Therefore, the Vatican employees will be driving ID.s starting January around the 109-acre city-state in the heart of Rome, where authorities are also planning to increase the number of charging stations to keep up with the growing number of EVs.
There are no details referring to the number of vehicles that Volkswagen will supply or the value of the contract. The delivery deadline is not public either.
Photo: Volkswagen
Back in September 2022, Pope Francis said that we should ditch fossil fuels in favor of greener alternatives. In 2017, Lamborghini gifted the Pope with a Lamborghini Huracan in white over a white leather interior.
But His Holiness never used it, and the City of Vatican eventually auctioned off the supercar via RM Sotheby’s. Instead, the Pope was seen driving a Fiat 500, a model that he used on his journey to the United States in 2015.
Pope Francis will be the first pope to address a UN climate conference when he attends the COP28 meeting in Dubai, set to take place between November 30 and December 12. For years, the Pope has been challenging world leaders to commit to targets in order to slow down climate change, saying that the humanity is inching closer to "the point of no return."
The first models to arrive were two ID.3 Pro Performance units. They are powered by a single motor, mounted on the rear axle, in a rear-wheel drive setup. The motor generates 201 horsepower (204 PS) and 229 lb-ft (310 Nm) of torque. The battery pack with a capacity of 58 kWh provides it with a range of up to 264 miles (425 kilometers).
The car can go from 0 to 62 mph (0 to 100 kph) in 7.3 seconds and reach a top speed of 99 mph (160 kph). We are probably not going to see the Vatican employees testing the top speed around the city-state.
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