Pope Francis gets an all-electric vehicle

Cleantechnica

Pope Francis was presented with his all-new Opel Ampera-e — a rebranded Chevy Bolt EV — at the recent Laudato Si sustainability conference by Opel CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann, as revealed in a recent press release.

In relation to the pope receiving the new Opel Ampera-e, the Italy-based firm Enel is also working with the Vatican to create a “sustainable mobility program.”

Autoblog provides more: “The Ampera-e represents a far cry from the heavy SUVs that have been traditionally used to ferry the pope.

The EV can go about 323 miles on a full electric charge, per the more generous European cycle. Vehicles associated with the Pope can be particularly valuable.

Last year, a Fiat 500L that transported Pope Francis through his Philadelphia visit sold for $82,000, or about four times sticker price. The proceeds were slated to go towards the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia.”

While this is perhaps not too pertinent to the news discussed above, it should probably be noted here that Opel is now being acquired by the the French auto manufacturer PSA Group. As a result, the future of Opel Ampera-e sales in Europe remains a bit unclear.

Though, presumably, sales will continue as is for at least a while longer. For more information on that, see: PSA Agrees To Buy Opel From GM. Also worth glancing at, in my opinion, is the news concerning PSA Group being investigated for diesel vehicle emissions testing fraud.

Anyways … enjoy the picture of the new all-electric Popemobile.

Source: Cleantechnica. Reproduced with permission.