Pope Benedict XVI is going green this year at World Youth Day Madrid 2011. The Popemobile is entirely built and financed Automobile mogul Mercedes Benz (Vatican’s choice of official papal mobile) will be running on Electricity. The car is not entirely electric because Vatican fears that a sole Electric car is not fast enough to swoosh the Pope away in case of emergency. The current Popemobile is a custom-made M-Class plug-in hybrid based on the technology found inside the Mercedes Vision S500 plug-in hybrid shown at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show. The Popemobile’s features was also based on US President Barack Obama’s limousine, Cadillac One. The Popemobile consist of Bulletproof glass which will allow people to see him inside the car while preventing terrorists from making him an easy target. After the failed assassination of John Paul II in 1981, the Vatican has made it sure that the Pope is safe and secure whenever he is mobile. The Popemobile is a little bit heavy so it will require a larger battery pack for it to go an extra mile. Currently the Popemobile is estimated to consume the whole battery pack on a 16 mile distance on all-electric mode depending on the speed of the car. That is why the car is a hybrid so that it will have options to switch energy mode in case it stalls the Pope at the middle of danger. Below is the new Popemobile recently delivered in Madrid.

Mercedes Vision S500 plug-in hybrid shown at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor has the technology which the Popemobile barrowed.

A custom-made M-Class plug-in hybrid Popemobile made by Mercedes Benz is on the road ready for delivery

From August 16-22, this will be Pope Benedict XVI’s official eco-friendly Popemobile in Spain