The new Popemobile is based on the new electric Mercedes-Benz G580.
As leader of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State, you can bet that Pope Francis (as well as his predecessors) travel around in some pretty sweet rides. The latest example is the first electric Popemobile to transport His Holiness — a modified version of the new electric G-Class SUV clad in the appropriate white hue and prominently featuring the expected open-air seating area.
The G580 with EQ Technology, as it’s formally called, arrives just in time for the Pope’s 2025 Jubilee, an event that takes place every 25 years and will draw millions of devotees to the Catholic faith to Rome and Vatican City to celebrate the occasion. Mercedes, for its part, is also keen to point out its long history of producing vehicles for the papacy, starting with the Nürburg 460 Pullman sedan for Pope Pius XI in 1930. Pope John Paul II used a G-Class in the 1980s, as the first vehicle that colloquially became known as “the Popemobile”.
“This is a special honor for our company,” said Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius, thanking Pope Francis and others involved in the vehicles development at the delivery ceremony Thursday. “With this Popemobile, we are also sending out a clear call for electromobilty and decarbonization. Mercedes-Benz not only stands for the special and the individual — but also for consistently creating the conditions for a net-carbon-neutral new car fleet in 2039.” (For reference, Mercedes announced that particular goal in 2023, with plans to reduce its carbon footprint by half from 2005 levels by 2030.)
To create the new Popemobile, Mercedes tuned the electric G’s quad-motor setup for smoother low-speed driving. The front bucket seats have been replaced, while the major changes naturally happen from the B-pillar rearward. The automaker chopped off the traditional roof to provide the appropriate level of papal prominence, while Pope Francis himself will sit on a centrally-mounted, height-adjustable chair that can swivel in any direction. That seat is flanked by two smaller seats at the rear that face each other, while there’s a rear hinged door at the back to fit the unique design, with railings and red carpet completing the look.
The Jubilee Year starts off with the opening of the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica on Christmas Eve, and will continue until the closing of the door at the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6, 2026. In that time, we’ll certainly see more of Mercedes’ one-off electric G-Wagen in action.
While we haven’t tried out the new electric G yet, we are reliving a bit of its past through the V8-powered Mercedes-AMG G63. You can check that out (with more to come) below:
