RUMORS: BMW Product and Concept Intros for 2009

BMW insiders have divulged product and concept debuts over the course of 2009. Pointing to a bumper year for fans of the blue and white Roundel, January will see the redesigned, hard-top BMW Z4 being publicly unveiled at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. In March the first glimpses of the Progressive Activity Sedan (PAS) or V-Series will show up in Geneva as a concept. Geneva should also deliver the Z4 Individual and the much-awaited Rolls Royce EX102 or RR4 concept, as well as a BMW eDrive model.

eDrive refers to cars that are powered by electricity, and this model is either a 1 or 3 Series. Project i will get good mention too in Geneva. Then we are off to Shanghai, China where the Concept CS made its international debut in 2008. There we'll see the 760i/ iL, 7 Series xDrive and the hybrid version being exhibited.

MINI Crossover can be seen later in the year about the same time as the PAS production model. The X1 production version will break cover too in 2009, so should an X6 Hybrid. For enthusiasts of the brand, high-performance M versions of the X5, X6, and a 7 Series-based M7 will come through.

More news are expected to surface regarding the BMW Z Vision Concept, a car shaped in the traditional roadster fashion, a few sizes smaller than a Z8 and powered by either hybrid or electric sources. Z Vision represents for BMW the future of the sports car, and could show what the precursor to the Mazda MX-5-bashing baby Z2 would roughly look like.