Magna Steyr to Build Infiniti Small Car

Nissan Motor Co. says Magna International Inc.'s Magna Steyr unit in Graz, Austria, will assemble a new luxury small car for the carmaker's Infiniti brand beginning in 2014. The car will compete with such models as the Audi A3 and Mercedes-Benz A-Class sedans.

Nissan says the car will be sold in "key" markets that include western Europe to help Infiniti achieve annual global sales of 500,000 units by 2016. Nissan did not say if the new car would be marketed in the U.S.

The company has provided no details about the new luxury car. But it hints that the model will be inspired by the Etherea hybrid sedan concept it revealed at the 2011 Geneva auto show.

CEO Carlos Ghosn has said the Nissan-Renault alliance was studying plans to develop at least one small rear-drive luxury car that uses Daimler AG's new "modular front" platform. The same chassis carries that company's next-generation Mercedes-Benz A- and B-Class small cars.

Automotive News Europe reported in December, when talk of the arrangement first surfaced, that Graz has capacity to assemble roughly 50,000 Infiniti cars per year. Unidentified sources also told the online newspaper that Daimler would supply the Infiniti program with unspecified pre-assembled modules.