Ford offers Santa an EcoBoost-powered Concept Sleigh to lower reindeer-derived CO2 emissions

MANILA, Philippines - lapland, Finland, December 12, 2012 – Leading Car Company Ford is offering to make it a greener Christmas with a concept sleigh that would dramatically downsize Santa’s carbon footprint. 

Santa’s new ride, packed with cutting-edge Ford technology, would allow Rudolph and friends to enjoy a well-deserved retirement while Santa makes his annual deliveries with style in an environmentally friendly new sleigh.

“They may look cute, but Santa’s team of nine reindeer create a staggering 53,667 tons of CO2 equivalent emissions each year, so something had to be done to help him re-discover his greener roots,” said car designer Paul Wraith, Ford of Europe.

Now, if the sleigh were powered by Ford’s new 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine, Santa could halve the carbon dioxide emissions from his round-the-world journey of almost 200 million kilometers.

Small enough to fit on a single sheet of A4 paper but big enough to rival the performance of a traditional 1.6-litre engine, the 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine is a fuel sipper that emits less than 140 g/km CO2.

It delivers 120 ps of power and 170 Nm of peak torque, giving it the highest power density of any Ford production engine to date.

While Santa himself was unavailable for comment, Mrs. Claus explained: “I am not looking forward to telling Donner and Blitzen the news, but the polar bears in the North Pole will certainly welcome the Ford EcoBoost-powered sleigh.”

The benefits of switching to the concept sleigh go beyond the environmental. Travelling such a huge distance means Santa currently spends an astronomical sum on carrots to fuel his reindeer each year. The impressive fuel efficiency of the 1.0-litre EcoBoost would reduce Santa’s fuel costs to just a fraction.

“Our tongue may be firmly in cheek as we launch this sleigh design, but our heart is in the right place,” Wraith said. “At Ford, we’re dreaming of a Green Christmas.”

Technology-laden sleigh

The redesigned sleigh also incorporates other cutting edge Ford technologies. Highlights include:

Active Park Assist: Clever technology that first checks if a parking space is big enough, then automatically steers your car/sleigh in. Santa will find it useful when making those tight rooftop landings.

Ford SYNC: A sophisticated in-car, voice-activated technology system that can be easily personalized. Santa can keep in touch with the elves back at base, listen to text messages from Mrs. Claus and play his favorite Christmas carols—all hands free.

EcoMode: In-car software that provides useful advice for drivers on achieving better fuel economy tailored to their individual driving styles. A specially modified version of the software will include an electronic Christmas tree image. The better Santa’s green driving performance, the more of the tree’s branches will light up.

Active City Stop and Blind Spot Information System: The first feature assists drivers in slow-moving traffic and brakes automatically if the car in front stops unexpectedly. The second feature helps detect vehicles in blind spots during normal driving. Both driver assistance technologies will be useful to Santa, as he tries to avoid planes in our increasingly crowded skies.