All of the 'Popemobiles' Pope Francis rode this year, from a Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen to a hydrogen-powered Toyota

Brittany Chang

December 4, 2019 6:46 PM

Renault

A Ford Ranger XLT was the Popemobile of choice during His Holiness's January visit to Panama, according to Zenit.

Pope Francis has ridden his fair share of Popemobiles in 2019, including a Kia Soul and a Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen.
His Holiness was gifted a Dacia Duster by the automaker in November.
Take a look at all of the cars the Pope has used as his Popemobile this year.
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From a flashy Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen to a humbler Kia Soul, His Holiness Pope Francis has had his ridden in his fair share of Popemobiles this year.

The term "Popemobile" coined in the 1970s is used to describe cars used to transport His Holiness, according to the New York Times . Some of its earliest iterations include a 1929 Fiat 525 and a Graham-Paige 837 of the same year, according to the Washington Post. Before that, the preferred popemobiles were portable thrones carried by footmen and velvet horse-drawn carriages.

Now, the papal passage is aided by the likes of a Kia, Mercedes-Benz, and Romanian brand Dacia, the later of which gifted the Pope an SUV in November. Automakers sometimes make a custom car for the Pope during his visits to the country in which they are based, like Toyota during his visit to Japan and Dacia during a trip to Romania.

In 2017, Lamborghini presented a Huracan to the Pope, who then signed and blessed the car before it was auctioned off for charity, according to the automaker.

Take a look at this year's preferred form of papal transports:

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