Back to the Future      

     Lexus’s Prototype Hoverboard

A casually attired lone figure rides into view on a skateboard. Dismounting with all the grace of a Russian ballerina, the individual saunters over to a waiting Hoverboard. 

'There’s no such thing as impossible, 'superimposes the ostentatious quote from Lexus Chief Engineer Haruhiko Tanahashi on the promo video trailer. 'It’s just a matter of figuring out how.'

So has the luxury car brand Lexus actually figured out how? 

It seems 2015 is the year of the hoverboard. 

Last month, IFLScience reported on Canadian inventor and engineer Catalin Alexandru Duru, who broke the world record for hoverboard flight distance on open water.

Keen "Back To The Future" fans will also have noticed that 2015 is the year Marty McFly famously rides his hoverboard in the second movie of the comic sci-fi fran.


Lexus’s hoverboard creation, however, appears to be much sleeker in design than Duru’s invention and more impressive than Marty's stolen vehicle of choice. Yet it's almost too impressive, if you’ve got your cynical "could-this-be-true" CGI hat on.

According to Lexus, research and development for the hoverboard has been in the works for about 18 months, during which time they have been working with a few unnamed professional skateboarders.

Embedded into the levitating board are liquid nitrogen-cooled superconductors and permanent magnets, which means the hoverboard can only be used on surfaces with a metal veneer. In case you’re skeptical of the hoverboard shown in the video, Lexus has confirmed that there is metal inlayed into the surface of the skatepark.

If the hoverboard shown isn’t real, it still looks very stylish. But if it is (and maybe I'm over-optimistic in hoping it is), we may have to wait for more information and release dates before the hoverboard becomes commercially available. 

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