Vatican: Electric Cars Too Slow, Hybrid Popemobile on Way

This story originally appeared at All Cars Electric

Last December we told you that the His Holiness, The Pope, was keen on swapping his large gas-guzzling Mercedes SUV ‘popemobile’ for a suitable electric car.  

Now
Vatican officials have confirmed the details of Pope Benedict XVI’s
latest ride: a custom-made M-Class plug-in hybrid based on the
technology found inside the Mercedes Vision S500 plug-in hybridshown at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show. 

Why not a pure electric-vehicle, as the Vatican hinted last year?

Papal
safety. In short, the Vatican doesn’t think an all-electric Popemobile
could accelerate fast enough to get His Holiness out of trouble in an
emergency. 

Ever since Turkish sniper Mehmet Ali AÄŸca attempted
to assassinate Pope John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City on
May 13, 1981, the Vatican has done everything it can to keep the Pope
safe when he is being transported.

Much like the Beast
– the U.S. President’s heavily armored limousine – the Popemobile is a
highly sophisticated, heavily armored car, much heavier than the M-Class
Mercedes it is based on. 

It’s the extra armor, bullet-proof
glass and emergency equipment that gives the Popemobile its extra
weight. More weight equals higher energy consumption. 

However, we do have to disagree with the Vatican on its assessment of an all-electric Popemobile. 

While
it would obviously require a much larger battery pack than those
normally found in production electric cars, we think it would be
entirely possible to engineer an all-electric armored car with
four-wheel electric drive, complete with enough torque to accelerate His
Holiness away from an incident quickly and safely. 

We
think the real reason for a plug-in hybrid rather than pure electric Popemobile lies not with the Vatican, but Mercedes, the automaker of
choice for recent Papal vehicles. 

The Vatican does not pay for
vehicles, which means Mercedes has to foot the bill for any vehicle it
develops for the Pope. Given that, we think Mercedes is reluctant to
spend money developing a drivetrain which simply won’t be used in any
other vehicles. 

With a possible production version of an S-Class plug-in hybrid in the works, making the Popemobile a plug-in hybrid is a no-brainer. 

Neither
the Vatican nor Mercedes has given any more details on the Popemobile
for security reasons, but have hinted that His Holiness will be able to
travel around 16 miles in all-electric mode. 

We’re not sure if
that’s at regular road speeds or the walking-pace used at official
engagements, but with the extra weight the Popemobile certainly won’t be
getting anywhere near the promised 85 mpg of the 2009 S-Class
concept. 

Content courtesy of Deutche Welle