Pope Leo XIV’s new car has been unveiled and it’s a ute – a heavily modified Fiat Titano ute, to be precise, with pictures of his Holiness’s transportation showing that it packs its own red carpet, but doesn’t seem to feature a bulletproof enclosure.

Built for the pontiff’s trip to Uruguay in early November, the ute has been put together in Montevideo by Nordex, Stellantis’s industrial partner in the South American nation. When Pope Leo moves on to Argentina later in his journey, he’ll use another vehicle that began its life as a Toyota HiLux.

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Ensuring crowds of the faithful have access – but not too much access – to the leader of the Roman Catholic church is one of the Popemobile’s main jobs, and to that end the Fiat has been created with open sides, a swivel seat so he can turn and greet crowds, and what appear to be bench seats down either side of the tray.

The Pope is recovering from recent surgery for lung cancer, so entering and exiting the vehicle has been made easier by the addition of an electrically operated mini staircase. And just so nobody can mistake it for anything other than the pontiff’s ride, the emblem of the Holy See features on the doors and two flags rising from just above the headlights. 

While there is a transparent screen rising from the top of the windshield to the top of the framework for the enclosure that houses the Pope, the rear and sides of the Fiat are completely open. Other Popemobiles have surrounded the pontiff with bulletproof glass.

The Fiat Titano is basically a rebadged Peugeot Landtrek, and the Peugeot was developed in partnership with China’s Changan Automobile. It comes with a choice of powertrain: a 2.2-litre turbo diesel making roughly 150kW and 450Nm, or a 1.9-litre turbo diesel making 110kW and 350Nm.

Past Popemobiles have been built by a wide range of manufacturers. A Mercedes-Benz 300D was the first convertible Popemobile that allowed the pontiff to stand and greet crowds, and the Pope has also ridden in a Lincoln Continental, SEAT Panda, Mercedes G-Wagon and Citroën Lictoria C6.