While the debate in the English-speaking world unfortunately seems to be dying down on what to call hoverboards—the self-balancing personal transport devices that don’t actually, you know, hover—there doesn’t yet seem to be one catch-all term in the Spanish-speaking world.
Quartz found a few of the ideas floating out there, and some of them are pretty excellent. Here are the best ones, with English translations (where it’s not obvious):
Scooter eléctrico, or “electric scooter.” That’s what they’re called on AliExpress.
Scooter eléctrico de auto equilibrio, or “self-balancing electric scooter,” is the closest to the literal English description, and can be found on Xataka.
Monopatín eléctrico, or “electric skateboard,” can be found on many retail sites.
Patineta voladora, or ”flying skateboard,” can be found in Mexico’s El Universal newspaper. (Monopatín and patineta are synonyms.)
Skate volador, also meaning “flying skateboard,” is what they say at Argentina’s La Nación.
Scooter de balanceo, or “balancing scooter,” is from Spanish site TecnonautaTV.
Aerotabla, or “airplank,” is what Wikipedia’s Spanish-language site calls them.
Los fastwheels.
Los airboards.
Los airwheels.
(All three of these come from Spain’s Diario de Sevilla newspaper and would all make great band names.)
El Pais uses aeropatín (“airboard”) to describe the fictional boards that actually do hover, which Back to the Future promised us would be here by now.
And Univisión calls it un “hoverboard” including the quote marks each time.
And then there’s Mini Monopatín monociclo Scooter Skateboard Eléctrico Inteligente Auto 2 Dos Ruedas Dual Wheels Unicycle Self Balancing con Luz LED, or “Mini Skateboard Unicycle Scooter Smart Auto Electric Skateboard Dual-Wheels Self-Balancing Unicycle with LED Light.” That succinct description can be found on Amazon. Chances are this one isn’t going to catch on.