Ford decided that Santa needs to reduce his carbon footprint and came up with an EcoBoost 1.0 liter concept sleigh for him.

Their argument is because Santa has to travel 200,237,360 km each year, this sleigh — based on Ford Evos concept — will save 214,670 tons of CO2 and £122 million worth of carrots to fuel his reindeer. And how much you hate the guy who made these calculations!

This is of course Ford taking advantage of Christmas to publicize their latest EcoBoost technologies. 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.

It’s all jolly well. But can’t people just drop this green malarkey for a few days and let us just enjoy the Christmas the way it’s been for years? Do you absolutely have to ruin it?

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. Useful for Santa in making those tight reverse rooftop landings.
• Door edge protector: A simple, but ingenious addition to Ford doors, helping thwart dents, dings and scratches even in the tightest parking spot. Vital to help Santa stop scratching the door of his sleigh on all those annoying chimneys.
• SYNC: A sophisticated in-car, voice-activated technology system, that can be easily personalised.  This will help Santa keep in touch with the elves back at base, stay en route with GPS navigation and enable him to listen to and change, his favourite Christmas music.
• 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 trees branch symbols will light-up.
• Active City Stop & Blind Spot Information System: Two driver assistance technologies, the first assists drivers in slow moving traffic by detecting if the car in front unexpectedly stops and braking automatically in response, whilst the second helps detect vehicles in blind spots during normal driving. Both will be useful to Santa, as he tries to avoid planes in our increasingly crowded skies.
• MyKey: Enabling car owners to encourage their teenagers (or elves) to drive safer and more fuel efficiently, with increased safety-belt usage, through a range of driver specific configurable features.
• 1 litre EcoBoost engine: As outlined, helping ensure the engine powering Santa’s sleigh is green, lean, mean and compact.