Toyota Motor Corp. said its Lexus model, dethroned in 2011 as the best-selling luxury auto brand in the United States, may miss its U.S. sales target this year amid fierce competition from BMW AG.

Sales in the U.S. are "slightly behind" target, although the introduction of the ES model in August may provide a boost in the rest of the year, according to Kazuo Ohara, executive vice president for Lexus.

In the first nine months of the year, the target for Lexus sales in the U.S. was 46 percent higher than the 170,990 vehicles sold, according to estimates by research firm Autodata Corp.