Infiniti Drops Magna Steyr as European Assembler

Nissan Motor Co. says it has reversed plans to hire Magna Steyr in Graz, Austria, to make a new small sedan for its Infiniti luxury brand.

Nissan said in May about that Magna Steyr, a unit of Canada's Magna International Inc., would begin assembling the new Infiniti model starting in 2014. Now the carmaker says it will begin building European versions of the cars at one of its own facilities in the region in 2015.

Nissan operates European assembly plants in Barcelona, Spain; St. Petersburg, Russia; and Sunderland, U.K. Its Infiniti brand currently sells a few thousand units per year all of them imported in western Europe. Reports say the company aims to eventually achieve annual production of as many as 60,000 units of the Infiniti model in Europe.

The new car will ride on the same platform that will carry Daimler AG's next-generation Mercedes-Benz A- and B-Class small cars. The vehicle is intended to compete with such models as the Audi A3 and BMW 1 Series in a segment where Infiniti envisions huge growth.