7 June 2017

Pope goes electric

The newest car to ferry a Pope around the Vatican and wherever else he ventures around Rome is an Opel electric car, writes Brian Byrne.

Pope Francis was presented with the Ampera-e last week at a conference on Sustainability of Communication and Innovation, by Opel CEO Karl Thomas Neumann.

The car is a rebadged version, modified for Europe, of the US Chevy Bolt small EV, with a rated range of more than 500km, likely closer to real world 300km.

The Ampera-e is currently being introduced in Norway — the vehicle's launch market — and will later be available in the Netherlands, Germany, France, and other countries.