Santa dreaming of a green Christmas

I’M dreaming of a green Christmas, just like the suit Santa used to wear…
Before Thomas Nast and Coca Cola put Father Christmas in a red suit in an advertising campaign, the jolly festive figure more often than not wore a green outfit.
And with that in mind, Ford has decided to help Santa get back to his green roots by designing a concept sleigh that will dramatically reduce his carbon footprint.
How so? You may ask. Well, according to Ford car designer Paul Wraith: “They may look cute, but Santa’s team of reindeers create a staggering 214,670 tons of CO2 equivalent emissions each year, so something had to be done to help him re-discover his greener roots.”
Switching to their sleigh would bring Santa many benefits. Because he has to cover such huge distances, Santa spends more than £122-million annual on carrots to fuel his four-legged friends. As his new sleigh would be fitted with Ford’s super-efficient one-litre EcoBoost motor and would cut his fuel costs to just £12-million, a saving of 90 per cent!
As Santa was too busy preparing for his big night, he wasn’t available for comment, but his other half, Mrs Claus said: “I am not looking forward to telling Donner and Blitzen the news, but the polar bears will certainly welcome the Ford EcoBoost-powered sleigh.
 “l would of course back anything that means my husband can get home that bit quicker. Getting presents in a shorter amount of time to all the good children each year may even give him time to reconsider a few names on the naughty list. But I can’t promise.”
Innovative engineering means the new EcoBoost engine delivers performance to rival a traditional 1.6-litre engine but with significantly improved fuel efficiency and lower CO2 emissions of just 114g/km CO2.
The 1.0-litre EcoBoost cylinder block also fits onto a single sheet of A4 paper, but still delivers up to 125PS and 170Nm peak torque (with 200Nm overboost), giving it the highest power density of any Ford production engine to date.
“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. 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.”