Pope may get energy-saving car

Rome: The next popemobile could be green. The Vatican says Mercedes-Benz is making a study of a hybrid, energy-saving popemobile that would replace the current Mercedes vehicle used when the pope travels abroad.

"It won't be ready for the September trip to Germany, but maybe at the end of the year or early 2012," said Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi.

Pope Benedict XVI is scheduled to make his first official visit to Germany September 22-25.

Christian Anosowitsch, a spokesman for Mercedes in Stuttgart, Germany, said he could not confirm the company is developing such a car, saying it was not policy to comment on possible future plans.

He said, "There is at the moment no order to build such a vehicle."