Lexus goes Back to the Future

TOKYO — If you have seen Back to the Future II, then you have probably dreamed of the day when you can buy your very own hoverboard. Throw it on the ground, jump on, grab a passing car and fly off down the street — until you fall off into a pile of manure. According to a new video from Lexus, which has built a real-life hoverboard, that is probably what will happen.

The luxury automotive company yesterday completed a full and final reveal of its Slide hoverboard project, concluding a successful testing phase that took place at a custom-crafted skate park in Spain.

The good news is, the board hovers. The bad news is, the board, which will float only above a special magnetic track, does not do much other than that.

The Lexus Hoverboard features two cryostats — reservoirs that contain superconducting material — kept at -197°C through immersion in liquid nitrogen. When the board gets close enough to the magnets in the ground, it hovers.

“The magnetic field from the track is effectively ‘frozen’ into the superconductors in the board, maintaining the distance between the board and track — essentially keeping the board in a hover,” said Dr Oliver de Haas, chief executive of Evico, a German company specialising in magnetic levitation technology that worked on the project.

Following 18 months of design and technology planning, the carmaker gave its gadget to professional skateboarder Ross McGouran, and captured just how hard it was to remain on the board in a two-minute video.

“I’ve spent 20 years skateboarding, but without friction, it feels like I’ve had to learn a whole new skill, particularly in the stance and balance you need to ride the hoverboard,” Mr McGouran said.

Though Lexus and Evico were able to pull off the project, do not expect to see a hoverboard fly past while you are walking down the street next year. To use maglev technology that would make this sort of hoverboard work, you need a magnetic metal track. Normal concrete pavements will not do.

Furthermore, it is just a prototype, and Lexus is not releasing it for sale.

The firm would not even venture a guess as to how much the hoverboard would cost. “You couldn’t actually even put a figure on it,” said Ms Yolande Waldock, who leads the global brand team for Lexus International. “It’s impossible to put a figure on it.” Agencies