Lexus heads "Back to the Future"

Check out Lexus’s brand new toy in action: introducing the Lexus Hoverboard.

Did Lexus plan this? The reveal? Back in 1989, the movie Back to the Future II’s Flying DeLorean time machine brought our favourite characters all the way to the year 2015 and they got involved in a number of chases, one of which features a hoverboard chase! Fast forward 26 years later, in 2015, Lexus introduces the Lexus Hoverboard.

Lexus constructed their hoverboard with the help of a team of scientists from IFW Dresden and evico GmbH who specialise in magnetic levitation technology. Following 18 months of extensive testing with the help of international pro-skateboard star Ross McGouran, the Lexus Hoverboard is ready to take flight.

The Lexus Hoverboard features two cryostats, reservoirs which contain superconducting material kept at -197 degree Celsius through immersion in liquid nitrogen. The board hovers over a track fitted with permanent magnets to achieved magnetic levitation.

Lexus tested the Hoverboard at a specially constructed “hoverpark” near Barcelona. The hoverpark was constructed using around 200 metres of magnetic track set beneath the surface of an area similar to a conventional skateboard park. This gave both Lexus and McGouran every opportunity to demonstrate tricks that even conventional skateboard couldn’t perform, including travelling across water. Even the hoverboard in Back to the Future couldn’t pull that off!

Watch the Lexus Hoverboard in action in Lexus’ new film Slide, a film made as a part of the Lexus Amazing in Motion campaign:

Jerrica Leong