Lexus to launch compact in Europe, targeting 1 Series and A3

Europeans will get another premium compact car not bound for U.S. shores and this time it comes courtesy of Lexus. The automaker is targeting the BMW 1 Series and Audi A3, vehicles that its rivals have offered in the United States market. Lexus, though, only plans the vehicle for markets outside the U.S. where sales of smaller cars outpace their larger siblings. Apparently, Lexus has set a goal to sell 150,000 vehicles in Europe by 2015 and believes the new model is necessary to meet that number. At this point, we have no idea what platform the compact car would be based on, but Toyota certainly has a number of options, most notably the Auris, which is offered in the European market in hatchback form. There is also the possibility that the new entry-level Lexus could be based on an upcoming small hybrid model from Toyota that would slot beneath the Prius, a version of which the automaker plans to debut in the Lexus line.
[Source: WirtschaftsWoche (Google Translated) via Motor Authority]