This year’s North American International Auto Show brought a few interesting launches and news to the automotive realm, including from BMW. The German manufacturer brought forward a couple of premieres while also the officials announced the plans the company has for the medium to long term. Apparently the new BMW X4 is inbound this year and this is the first time a BMW official confirmed what we all suspected.

Talk about the G02 BMW X4 has been going around ever since the first BMW G01 X3 prototype was spotted on public roads, mostly due to the close relation the two cars share. Since they are built atop the same chassis and use the exact same engines, the only thing different being basically the roof, it was only a matter of time until the new X4 came around. The car was revealed last year when a spy photographer caught wind of what definitely looks like the next gen BMW X4.

Today, Dr.

Nicolas Peter, Member of the Board of BMW AG, responsible for Finance confirmed the launch is set for later this year in his speech held in Detroit: “2018 will be the year of “X”! This year we will launch a new BMW X4 and extend the line-up of our X range, starting with the incredibly cool X2 in spring. This year, the hotly anticipated BMW X7 will go into production at Plant Spartanburg.”

The new X4 will get an M40i version and, if our previous spy shots prove to be accurate, a BMW X4 M40d model is also coming, probably using an enhanced version of the B57 3-liter straight six twin-turbo diesel engine. There’s no word about such a possible model however, neither through official channels or via various sources inside Munich so it remains to be seen whether it will come to fruition or not. Either way, we’re waiting for the X3 M and X4 M to show up in the following months.