2023 Nissan Z launch timeline appears on Facebook, quickly disappears

Check any forum focused on the Nissan Z and you'll find threads full of reservation holders and enthusiasts who can't wait for the Z's arrival. You can then imagine the horde that ran to a quickly deleted Facebook post wherein one Tommy Bennet posted the above slide with the caption, "This is what I know." The post wasn't up long, attracting just 26 comments and one share before being taken down — but not before it was spotted by the New Nissan Z forum and Motor1. What matters is that the slide was posted by a dealer salesman (unless his account was hacked), Mr. Bennet still appearing on the staff page of Mountain View Nissan of Cleveland, Tennessee. So while we can't know where the slide originated, we know it was posted by someone with an interest in letting potential buyers know when the new Z will be here. The slide indicates "here" will happen sometime this summer.      

Production starts this month, which appears to have some corroboration. A poster at the New Nissan Z forum wrote on February 28, "I actually just replied on another thread today that reports that the Z had already gone into production were not accurate. Dan Passe confirmed 'not yet.'" Passe is the director of product PR at Nissan North America, and he gave a thumbs up to the comment. Production will happen at Nissan's Tochigi, Japan plant dedicated to luxury, sports, and electrified vehicles. It's built the Fairlady Z since 2004 and the GT-R since 2007, among other vehicles. The automaker completed a $285 million overhaul at Tochigi in 2020 to deliver its new generation of electrified and intelligent automobiles.

If the media first drives occur in April, the drives could be timed only to give the factory the leeway to get into its production cadence. Or the drives could be timed around the New York Auto Show, which opens to the public on Friday, April 15 and closes Sunday, April 24; New York City is where Nissan hosted a special event in August 2017 to debut the coming Z. Our guess is that reviews will appear after the show in order to let the Z have its time in the light, providing fodder for the media drive debrief and play-calling huddle at the Nissan North America field meeting in May. 

The Wholesale Release/Start of Sales in June doesn't tell us anything about when cars can be expected to start reaching buyers. As other forum posters have mentioned, Nissan has tabbed spring on social media as the season for the new Z to hit showroom floors, which gives the automaker until 11:59 on June 19 to fulfill dreams everywhere.

That is, assuming there's some truth to the slide. If there is, we could know in a few weeks, which is about the time when April media drive invitations would start going out. 

Related video: