Henrik Fisker is known to make huge claims and not fulfill them, but this time around, he says he's actually going to come through on one of his promises which he made recently. Fisker now tells The Verge that his proposal to the Vatican to create a fully electric SUV for Pope Francis has been accepted and his employees are working with the Vatican to understand the requirements, though none of this has been confirmed by the Vatican for what is often known as the Popemobile.
Fisker had met the Pope along with his wife and co-founder Geeta Gupta-Fisker briefly during an educational event outside the Vatican. Fisker's wife had asked the Pope to bless the EV startup before having his holiness sign a marker sketch of a Fisker SUV. The video also shows Fisker pitching his vehicle by showing computer renderings and a proposed electric popemobile.
And the next thing we know Fisker is claiming that he's going to be delivering a popemobile to the Vatican, though this interaction wasn't even on the Vatican's list of official audiences. Fisker had even released a press release about the same which claimed that a proposal had been presented to the Pope in a private audience, even though as witnessed by the video that wasn't the case.
Fisker has raised a lot of funding but his solid-state battery plans were abandoned after a lawsuit with Quantumscape
The Pope has been known to use a multitude of vehicles over the years but 1/3rd of the vehicles are from the Daimler group - Mercedes Benz. The current popemobile however is the Toyota Mirai which is a hydrogen car.
When the pope travels he is often using vehicles that are modified with things like bulletproof glass. The Vatican is also often gifted vehicles that don't come with the required safety measures, though this disqualifies them from regular use. For example when Renault gave the pope an electric Kangoo van but the Vatican said it would only be used to get around the summer palace.
Fisker may exaggerate things but the former BMW executive has raised $1 billion in funding and has two important deals on the table. One for the supply of parts from Magna and one for manufacturing with Foxconn.
