Just as the emergency refresh of the 2013 Honda Civic makes its way toward its debut at the LA Auto Show, we're beginning to learn of some other new products that the Japanese automaker has in the pipeline for the next few years. Now that bread and butter models like the Accord, Civic and CR-V have each been redesigned, Honda is in the planning stages for models like the next-gen Fit and, with products like the S2000, Prelude and Acura RSX gone but not forgotten, what (if anything) it plans to do to regain the sports-coupe crown from Toyota.

According to Autocar, Honda is aiming to build a competitor to the Nissan Juke competitor based off the next-generation Fit platform. Honda CEO Takanobu Ito confirmed to the British auto mag that development of the compact crossover is currently taking place. a sedan version is also apparently in the cards to make the Fit a truly global car. Ito provided no specific details about the upcoming Fit-based crossover, only that it would serve as a "younger brother to the new CR-V." He did make it clear that the Fit is also a "strategically" important model for his company as it wants to increase global sales from this year's 4 million units to 7 million by 2017.

However, Ito did rule out a direct lightweight sports coupe competitor to the Toyota GT86/Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ, stating that Honda would instead target that market niche with a new Civic Type-R, due in 2016. Unfortunately the Type-R won't be making the voyage to American shores, so US buyers have to make do with the Civic Si, but neither version of the front-wheel drive Civic could really be considered a rival to the Toyobaru sportscar.