Ford Helps Santa Go Green

With the current trend towards lowering emissions from our transportation devices, it seems even dear old Santa is jumping on the bandwagon, albeit with assistance from Ford Motor Company.

According to Ford designer Paul Wraith, Santa’s team of nine reindeer produce the equivalent of a whopping 214,670 tons of CO2 emissions and, considering that the sleigh travels huge distances (some 200,237, 360 km/125,148,350 miles) Santa also has to deal with a hefty fuel bill of some £122 million ($195 million) for carrots.

As a result, in order to deal with both issues, Ford has developed a new sleigh with cutting edge technology , including a 1.0-liter EcoBoost engine which will help Santa save some 191,843 tonnes of CO2 and £110 million/$176 million on fuel costs, plus such features as Active Park Assist (useful for tight rooftop landings), SYNC (enabling Santa to remain in contact with the elves back at the North Pole, while staying en route, as well as listening to his favorite Christmas tunes); Active Blind Spot Monitoring (allowing Santa to keep an eye out for potential hazards such as aircraft when navigating the skies) and even a MyKey feature (meaning that during the off season, some of Santa’s cheekier elves aren’t tempted to take the sleigh out for joy rides).

“Our tongue may be firmly in cheek as we launch this sleigh design,” declared Wraith “but our heart is in the right place”. ” At Ford, we’re dreaming of a Green Christmas. We’re already thinking of the concept sleigh mark II. With electric vehicle battery technology developing all the time, we are keen to get to work on a zero-carbon version of our sleigh.”

Although Santa wasn’t available for comment due to his currently very busy schedule, Mrs Claus added that while “I am not looking forward to telling Donner and Blitzen the news [about the new sleigh], the polar bears in the North Pole will certainly welcome it.”