Pope Francis picks Nissan LEAF over Tesla Model S

Berlin-based Manager Jochen Wermuth introduces Nissan LEAF, an Electric Vehicle model, to Pope Francis/ Electrek

For over a long time, Vatican as a center of Catholic faith, is not late in showing luxury in terms of different things including transportation.

In line of convincing Vatican to divest its assets from fossil fuels to renewable energy, a germany-based businessman offered Pope Francis Tesla’s premium sedan, the model S, but the Pontiff turned down the car model instead Nissan car called LEAF.

For a quite long time, Berlin-based asset manager Jochen Wermuth has been leading an effort to persuade the Church to divest its assets from fossil fuels and invest in sustainable energy.

As part of Wermuth’s effort, he decided to give Pope Francis an electric vehicle and he offered both a Tesla Model S and a Nissan LEAF.

In an exclusive interview with Germany’s Spiegel, Wermuth said that the Pope preferred the smaller LEAF over the bigger Model S.

Wermuth brought the LEAF to the Vatican himself and introduced the leader of the catholic church to the EV.

Based on some report, the LEAF will now be available to the Vatican’s fleet free of charge for one year – courtesy of Wermuth.

Pope Francis is actually not the first Pope to have been driven in an EV since Pope Benedict XVI received a custom Kangoo Z.E. from Renault.

Meanwhile, Wermuth’s investment firm, which has been an advocate for the divesting movement, is now part of a joint working group of the Vatican to build a new sustainable investment strategy for their assets that have been estimated at $10 billion to $15 billion.