Nissan donates all-electric Leaf to the Vatican

MANILA: In celebration of the World Environment Day, Nissan has turned over a fully electric Nissan Leaf to the Vatican to mark the two organizations’ shared goal of carbon neutrality.

The Nissan Leaf is the world’s first mass-market electric vehicle (EV). The unit was received by Governorate of Vatican City State President and Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State President Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello.

The donation is in line with the launch of Vatican’s Laudato si’ Action Platform that aims to make Catholic institutions environmentally sustainable within seven years.

During the turnover ceremony, Nissan Italy Managing Director Marco Toro stated, “I am honored, on behalf of Nissan, to support the Holy See on the path towards the decarbonization of its operations, a goal which Nissan shares. We are working towards 75% of our sales in Europe being electrified by 2023, with a fully electrified range in the 2030s. This builds on the heritage of the Nissan LEAF as the world's first mass-market EV, with 530,000 cars on the road having saved more than 2.8 million tons of CO2 worldwide.”

The Nissan Leaf units available in European markets are manufactured in Sunderland, United Kingdom. Recently, the carmaker announced it plans of tripling the plant’s on-site renewable energy generation to 20% of the factory needs to produce more Leaf units in Europe.

United Kingdom Consul General in Milan and Department of International Trade Director Ben Greenwood said, “As part of our Clean Growth campaign and in the run up to COP26 in Glasgow and the Milan Pre-COP this year, DIT Italy is proud to be supporting Nissan Europe in its journey towards an entirely sustainable mobility model that will see all its vehicles electrified by early 2030s.”

“Today's event is testament to our desire to collaborate with the Holy See to help them reach their sustainability goals and their commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2050. This is part of Pope Francis' wider effort to protect the environment, as outlined in 2015 in his Laudato si' Encyclical on Care for our Common Home and announced at the Climate Ambition Summit in December 2020,” Greenwood added.

As part of its initiatives to develop a sustainable environment, Nissan targets to offer an electrified variant of all its vehicle models in Europe by the end of 2023. It is also set to launch the all-new Qashqai and X-trail with Nissan’s unique e-Power technology, the all-electric Ariya, and a new electric van.

Photos from Nissan

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