Pope Francis will rely on electric cars for his personal fleet at the Vatican in the future. In order to make the Papal States and its vehicle fleet more environmentally friendly, state vehicles are to be gradually replaced by electric vehicles from the VW and Skoda brands. The entire vehicle fleet must be CO2 neutral by 2030 to achieve climate neutrality in the world’s smallest country.
For this purpose, a partnership agreement was signed with the Volkswagen Group. Volkswagen announced in the evening that the company will deliver around 40 fully electric models from its ID.family as early as 2024. In subsequent stages, additional zero-emission vehicles from Volkswagen Group brands will be successively handed over to the Vatican. The goal is to electrify the city-state’s entire fleet by 2030.
A separate charging network for electric cars is also to be established in smaller national territory and extraterritorial areas. Volkswagen is a strategic partner in this regard. Initially it was not known how many vehicles the Papal States had.