Press Release

Wolfsburg/Braunschweig/Vatican City, 15 November 2023 – Volkswagen is supporting the Vatican City State in its transition towards sustainable mobility. At the beginning of 2024, the company will deliver just under 40 fully electric models from its ID. family, ranging from the ID.3¹ to the ID.4 and ID.5. The vehicles are part of the decarbonization strategy of the VCS, aiming to make the Vatican fleet climate-neutral by 2030. Imelda Labbé, Member of the Board of Management for Marketing, Sales and After-Sales at Volkswagen Passenger Cars, and Dr. Christian Dahlheim, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Financial Services AG, have personally handed over the first two electric vehicles to the Vatican, two ID.3 Pro Performance² models.

"The electrification of fleets is becoming increasingly important across the globe. The fact that Vatican employees will now also be among our ID. drivers in the future is a great honor for our brand and underscores the attractiveness of our all-electric ID. models," said Imelda Labbé during the vehicle handover in Vatican City.

Dr. Christian Dahlheim added: "We are delighted to support the Vatican in this important project. This is something very special for us and shows that we are absolutely competitive with our mobility solutions."

The Vatican City State is strongly committed to the implementation of innovative and sustainable solutions that make it possible to reduce, in concrete terms, the impact of human activities on the environment in order to protect the planet. Mobility is at the heart of a specific program called "Ecological Conversion 2030", which aims to reduce the CO₂ footprint of the state's vehicle fleet. To achieve this, the existing vehicles are to be gradually replaced by electric ones to make the entire fleet CO₂-neutral by 2030.

Volkswagen is the chosen partner for this project, and through Volkswagen Financial Services it will supply the Vatican State with a fleet starting from the beginning of 2024. At later stages, further zero-emission vehicles from the Volkswagen Group brands will be progressively handed over up until the entire fleet has been completely replaced by 2030.

¹ ID.3 - Power consumption in kWh/100 km: combined 16.3-14.9; CO₂ emissions in g/km: combined 0; only consumption and emission values in accordance with WLTP and not in accordance with NEDC are available for the vehicle. Where ranges are stated, the values for consumption and CO₂ emissions depend on the selected vehicle equipment.

² ID.3 Pro Performance - Power consumption in kWh/100 km: combined 15.2; CO₂ emissions in g/km: combined 0; only consumption and emission values in accordance with WLTP and not in accordance with NEDC are available for the vehicle. Where ranges are stated, the values for consumption and CO₂ emissions depend on the selected vehicle equipment.

Volkswagen Financial Services are a business division of the Volkswagen AG group of companies and comprise Volkswagen Financial Services AG along with its associated companies, Volkswagen Bank GmbH, Porsche Financial Services, and the financial services companies in the USA and Canada that belong directly or indirectly to Volkswagen AG – with the exception of the financial service business of the Scania brand and of Porsche Holding Salzburg. The key business fields embrace dealer and customer financing, leasing, bank and insurance activities, fleet management and mobility services. Volkswagen Financial Services have a total of 17,713 employees worldwide – including 7,692 alone in Germany. Volkswagen Financial Services report total assets of around EUR 240 billion, an operating profit of EUR 5.60 billion, and a portfolio of around 22.0 million current contracts (as at: 31.12.2022).

More information at www.vwfs.com 

The Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand is present in more than 140 markets worldwide and produces vehicles at 29 locations in twelve countries. In 2022, Volkswagen delivered around 4.6 million vehicles. These include bestsellers such as the Polo, T-Roc, T-Cross, Golf, Tiguan or Passat as well as the successful all-electric models ID.3¹, ID.4, ID.5 and ID.6. Last year, the company handed over more than 330,000 all-electric vehicles to customers worldwide. Around 170,000 people currently work at Volkswagen worldwide. With its ACCELERATE strategy, Volkswagen is consistently driving forward its development to become the most desirable brand for sustainable mobility.