With Mercedes-Benz developing the new CLA and Audi turning its A3 into a sedan for the North American market, BMW is reportedly afraid of losing customers in that niche, and so it's fast-tracking a 1 Series sedan into production. But the most enticing part may be the emergence of a 1 M sedan to compete with the CLA45 AMG and Audi S1. BMW is reportedly still evaluating whether to build the sedan on the rear-drive platform of the 1 Series hatch or the new front-drive platform of the upcoming 1 Series GT.

Whichever architecture it adopts, though, the 1M sedan is tipped to pack a 2.0-liter turbo four with over 300 horsepower, and could go all-wheel-drive (like the CLA and S3) regardless. The N20 engine utilizes variable valve timing, direct injection and twin-scroll turbos and is engineered to be mounted either longitudinally (for rear-drive platforms) or transversely (for front-drive platforms). In order to get the sedan to market as quickly as possible, BMW is reportedly talking to contract manufacturers to handle development and production. As a result, we could be looking at the 1 Series sedan to arrive in a couple of years, with the M version to follow late in 2015.