Ho! Ho! Woah!!
With Jolly Saint Nick beginning his annual rounds shortly, the idea that Santa would still rely on reindeer to pull his sleigh along with all those gifts seems antiquated and a tad bit cruel. The poor guy's over 300 years old for peat sake.
It’s time to make life easier for Father Christmas. For his annual trek, Santa requires a vehicle that can handle any weather condition, is powerful enough to travel around the world in a single night, has cargo space to haul plenty of toys, and with efficiency suited for long jaunts without refueling.
To solve the problem, auto designers have created new sleighs with high speed modifications and sleek designs for Santa. You know, engineering prowess that will finally do away with Rudolf for good.
So hold onto your Santa hats! As we take a look at our favorite car maker sleighs built to blow your stockings off the mantle.
Lexus
To create the HX Sleigh Concept, Lexus designers have taken inspiration from current modes while also making sure the sleigh suits the needs of Santa and has lots of luggage capacity. The front is one of the most striking areas and includes a faux spindle grille, narrow headlights and angular LED daytime running lights.
The sleek styling continues at the sides with a flowing windshield, no visible door handles and steeply-raked A-pillars. Also, found at the rear are the small jet engines that power the sleigh.
Lexus has also outfitted the HX Sleigh Concept with a host of nice luxuries that Santa is bound to appreciate. For example, there’s a ‘Climate Concierge with Neck Warmer’ system, a touchscreen display with an Embedded Air Traffic Control system, and a bespoke Mark Levinson Surround Sound Audio System so Santa can jam out to his favorite Christmas songs.
How the vehicle runs appears to be open to debate. The claims in the release say the sleigh has “hybrid electric technology” but in the same sentence also says it “runs on 100% renewable holiday spirit.” But if you believe in Santa it doesn’t really matter how the thing runs, he’ll find your house and get down your chimney. So you better watch out.
Toyota
This year, as families stare up at the dazzling night sky, they may notice a flash of red flying by. Not to fear, this beacon of Infrared paint and aerodynamic design is Santa’s latest gift to himself – the all-new, Toyota Santa's Sleigh Concept - a sleigh like no other, incorporating everything Santa needs to get his very important job done in luxury and style.
The concept was created by Caio Monteiro and Diego Barcelos at Lightfarm after asked to imagine how Santa's sleigh would look like if it was made by Toyota. After the concepts were approved, the team worked to build everything from scratch in CGI.
The combination of old-fashioned charm and modern flare executed by the team adds the perfect amount of holiday cheer to the design. Instead of circling the globe in his usual no-frills magic sleigh, good old Saint Nick will be delivering gifts in a slightly flashier manner this year.
So, did Santa make the right call here or should he have gone with a different brand? Wait until you see what we have next.
Land Rover
Land Rover went futuristic with its land-based speeder design that follows their brand aesthetic remarkably well. Being a Land Rover, we assume it handles rough terrain well. The particle accelerator propulsion system is a nice touch and we dig the optional CRS (Chimney Recognition Software) technology.
Without a doubt the F-Sleigh design is amazing. Skates replace wheels. There’s a big open compartment for gifts. And instead of a usual engine, there’s jet power to propel Santa around the world in a single evening.
Renault Sport
Say hello to the Santa Sleigh R.S., a work of Paris-based designer Alexandre Ferra. The Santa Sleigh R.S. (short for Renault Sport) comes with an incredibly long design, and obviously ditches the wheels for more snow-friendly runners. I’m not entirely sure its elongated design would have enough cabin space for all those gifts, but it surely is big enough for the man in red to sit comfortably.
Designed clearly for a modern age, the sleigh sports a beautiful metallic automotive finish, and what I presume is a jet-based propulsion system on the inside. Why else would the sleigh have two massive thrusters on the back? After all, Father Christmas has to cover the entire earth in a span of just 24 hours.
We don’t get to peek inside, but we can assume that there are plenty of touchscreens, possibly an ultra-wide display, to provide real-time navigation. As for the number of seats, a single large one would make sense, rather than try to pack two or more in there, since at least a few presents could fit inside the cabin.
Bentley
Apparently, Santa Clause is besotted by plush luxury cars. This sleigh is a Santa-inspired version of the Bentley Continental GTC Cabrio that was created by Bentley designer Yunwoo Jeong. As you can see it has that large Bentley grille up front, and those massive LED headlights are sure to illuminate his way much better than Rudolph himself.
Clearly this sleigh is designed to land safely on roofs and snowy terrain alike with those long built-in skies on each side. We have no idea what powers the Bentley sleigh – it could be that 6.0-liter, 575-horsepower engine from the 2012 Continental GTC.
As expected from Santa’s new sleigh, Flying Spur Reindeer Eight is brimming with holiday vibes. Santa chose the Cricket Bauble paint finish to mimic the color of his old sleigh. He also brought along Rudolf in the form of a three-dimensional printed reindeer mascot in gold to replace Bentley’s Flying B hood ornament.
Ferrari
Here's a Ferrari Testarossa built for Santa. A unique build that combines classic Ferrari design with the ability to deliver presents all over the world. Obviously, it's not as spacious or practical as the sleigh, but replacing reindeer games with actual horsepower seemed like a good idea.
Unfortunately, with it being an old Ferrari, the Testarossa malfunctions all the time. So if you woke up to a big fat nothing under the tree this year, it could be to blame. At least driving this classic supercar will make Santa feel better about his masculinity. There's only so much giving a guy can do.
Something feels like it's missing here, though. It's a car of the 80s, crazy in every way. If one was turned into anything today, it would need way more trunk space.
Dodge
Dodge has its own special way of getting into the holiday spirit—and, you guessed it, it does indeed involve the Hellcat. Premiering in one of the automaker's new holiday sales ads is this wild Santa sleigh that's based on a Dodge Challenger Hellcat Redeye, that 797-hp supercharged muscle car that's already plenty ridiculous on its own.
From what we can see, the sleigh is a chopped-up Challenger coupe with two massive metal runners replacing the four wheels. The supercharged 6.2-liter Hellcat Hemi V-8 is said to be underhood, though we can't help but wonder how the sleigh gets all that power to the ground—er, air. Four chrome exhaust pipes sprout from the front fender, the windshield is lowered, the roof is mostly removed for an open-air feel, and there's a space for presents in the rear. The Hellcat logo with reindeer antlers in the front grille is a nice finishing touch.