Woke Pope goes zero emissions in hydrogen Toyota Mirai Popemobile
Being God’s representative on Earth, His Holiness Pope Francis is under a chunk of pressure to not sully the blessed pure air the Almighty created.
His solution is a hydrogen fuel cell Toyota Mirai as the latest Popemobile, presented to him as a gift from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan, to assist with zero emissions blessings.
The hydrogen-fuelled Mirai was delivered to the Pope’s residence in the Vatican City, and is one of two Mirais that were specially made by Toyota for the Holy Father’s papal visit to Japan in November last year.
Having previously urged leaders to act against climate change, the Toyota Mirai with its 500km range and ability to emit only water gives Pope Francis a far better green score than many of his predecessors.
Previous Popemobiles have included a gas guzzling Toyota LandCruiser, Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen, Land Rover Santana, Range Rover and Mercedes ML SUVs.
Keeping Him upstairs happier will be the new Mirai Popemobile. Now looking not dissimilar to a SsangYong ute, the modified Mirai is 5.1-metres long and 2.7-metres tall due to its custom rear scaffolding with roof allowing the Pope to stand and be visible to the gathered people.
The Pope may be on-trend with his message, but sadly his decapitated Mirai is based on the first generation introduced in 2014 with rather dumpy looks, rather than its captivating sleek successor shown in production-ready concept form at the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show.
This second generation Mirai – originally expected to launch late this year in Japan, USA and Europe before coronavirus intervened – promises a 700km range and performance leap over the Pope’s sluggish 113kW/335Nm version.
Toyota said Pope Francis has “a deep interest in global environmental matters, which he shared in his encyclical “Laudato si’” in 2015. This is his appeal to safeguard the earth and all that surrounds us, changing our lifestyle to preserve our “common home”. The Toyota Mirai is well suited to his vision.”
Amen.
In 2017 Pope Francis was gifted a bespoke, gold-striped Lamborghini Huracán LP580-2 – its V10 far less in touch with the times. His Holiness signed the supercar and auctioned it with RM Sotheby’s at Monaco’s May 2018 event. It made 809,000 Euros ($1.3 million) for charitable causes.
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