The new BMW Z4 is going to make its debut sometime in the summer of this year, quelling the uproar over the roadster’s surprising absence at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show. The word for months had the Z4 penned to make its debut in Geneva, but the show arrived with no signs of the roadster. Now we know why. The German automaker didn’t say when the car will have it’s world debut, opting only to say that it’s going to have a “dedicated event” before it heads to the Paris Motor Show in October.

Now we know that the Z4 will be shown at the Paris Motor Show. That’s great. But it was also said that the actual world debut will occur at “its own dedicated event” before then. That opens a few possibilities on when and where that’s going to be. The “when” is likely going to happen sometime in the summer, which means that we could be looking at a June or July unveiling. It’s worth noting that the Z4 Concept made its debut in August last year at the Monterey Car Week in Pebble Beach, California. Could BMW use the same event this year to finally unveil the new Z4? It wouldn’t be impossible, but it doesn’t fall in the description of a “dedicated event.”

The more likely scenario is that BMW will plan an event specifically for the BMW Z4’s debut. Methods like that have become more frequent in the auto industry because automakers have come to realize that there are cheaper ways to unveil a car without trooping to an auto show to do it. The rise of social media and online live streaming are big reasons for that. Automakers can get a bigger audience with these methods than they would on an auto show. More importantly, a dedicated event is cheaper to produce compared to paying for spots at an auto show.

This new timetable also raises questions on when the Toyota Supra, the sports car that was developed alongside the BMW Z4, will make its own debut. We finally got hints on what it could look like with the unveiling of the GR Supra Racing Concept in Geneva, but the production version of the Supra sports car is unlikely to debut before the Z4 has its moment in the spotlight. That puts into question Toyota’s debut schedule for its sports car. It could be this year; it could be next year. At this rate, we wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the latter. Regardless, it appears that we now know when the new BMW Z4 will make its debut. We’ll take that for what it’s worth.

References

BMW Z4

Read what we had to say about the upcoming sports car in our Speculative Review of the 2019 BMW Z4}

BMW Z4 Concept

Read up on the 2017 BMW Z4 Concept}

2019 Toyota Supra

Check out the spy shots and what we had to say about the 2019 Toyota Supra}

Toyota GR Supra Racing Concept

Read up on the laests Toyota GR Racing Concept}