The vehicles are part of the Vatican’s decarbonization strategy. According to plans, the fleet will be made climate neutral by 2030. Imelda Lappé, Member of the Volkswagen Board of Management responsible for Sales and Marketing, and Dr. Christian Dahlheim, CEO of Volkswagen Financial Services AG, presented the first two electric cars, the ID.3 Pro Performances. , to the Vatican.
Handing over the car in the Vatican (from left to right): Dr. Markus Oseguich, CEO of Volkswagen Group Italia; Pope Francis; Imelda Lappé, Director of Sales and Marketing at Volkswagen Board of Management and Dr. Christian Dahlheim, CEO Volkswagen Financial Services AG. Photo: Volkswagen
“The electrification of vehicle fleets is becoming increasingly important around the world. In the future, Vatican employees will also be included in this circle. This is a great honor for our brand and highlights the appeal of fully electric ID cards.” – said Imelda Labbe during the delivery of the car in the Vatican.
Dr. Christian Dahlheim added: “We are very happy to support the Vatican in this important project. This is something very special for us and shows that we are quite competitive with our mobility solutions.
There will also be an ID.5 in the Vatican.
The Vatican City State is committed to implementing innovative and sustainable solutions that allow to significantly reduce the impact of human activities on the environment in order to protect the planet. Mobility is at the heart of the special program called “Ecological Reconstruction 2030”, which aims to reduce the carbon footprint of the country’s vehicle fleet. To this end, current vehicles will be gradually replaced by electric vehicles in order to achieve CO2 neutrality for the entire fleet by 2030.
Volkswagen is the chosen partner in this project and will deliver a fleet of fully electric cars to Vatican City from early 2024 through Volkswagen Financial Services. In subsequent stages, additional zero-emission cars from Volkswagen Group brands will be delivered to the Vatican. The goal is to electrify the city’s entire fleet by 2030.
Volkswagen Financial Services is a division of Volkswagen AG (the Group) and includes Volkswagen Financial Services AG and its subsidiaries, Volkswagen Bank GmbH, Porsche Financial Services and the direct or indirect financial services companies of Volkswagen AG in the United States and Canada, excluding Scania and Porsche. Holding Salzburg. Key business areas include dealer and customer finance, leasing, banking, insurance, fleet management business and mobility offerings. Volkswagen Financial Services employs 17,713 people worldwide – 7,692 of them in Germany alone. Volkswagen Financial Services has total assets of approximately €240 billion, operating profit of €5.60 billion and a portfolio of approximately 22.0 million contracts (as of December 31, 2022).
The Volkswagen passenger car brand is present in more than 140 markets worldwide, and vehicles are manufactured at 29 sites in twelve countries. In 2022, Volkswagen delivered approximately 4.6 million vehicles. These include best-selling models such as the Polo, T-Roc, T-Cross, Golf, Tiguan and Passat, as well as the fully electric ID.3, ID.4, ID.5 and ID.6. The company delivered more than 330,000 pure electric cars to its customers last year. Currently, about 170,000 people work at Volkswagen around the world. Through its ACCELERATE strategy, Volkswagen is constantly strengthening its development as the most preferred brand for sustainable mobility.
