SPY PICS: Infiniti's real-life QX30 SUV

The production-reality QX30 SUV will look more like the prototype car featured in these Automedia spy photos than the design study previewed at this year's Geneva motor show as an almost-radical knife-edged product of the Infiniti styling team.

The German-registered test mule might fit a similar envelope to the Geneva concept car, but throttled back to more consumer-acceptable (read conservative) levels. Gone are the razor-slash window line extensions in the c-pillar, and a fixed quarter panel has been installed in the rear side windows. Wheel sizes are more realistic than the show car's 21-inchers and there's a general softening of the sweeping side body creases.

The spy photos don't allow much interpretation of what's likely to happen to the real QX30's nose, but the grille/headlight relationships could well be similar, as could the rear-end details, including the slitted tail lights and the profiling of the tailgate in the area below the rear window.

As a 30mm higher-riding version of the premium-class Q30 hatchback concept first seen at the Frankfurt motor show in 2013, the QX30 – which will be aimed at the likes of BMW's X1, the GLA Benz and Audi's Q3 – owes not just its modular MFA platform to the A-Class Benz, but is expected to be powered by powerplants also sourced from Mercedes-Benz, and will be offered with AWD.

The QX30 and its hatchback sibling are expected to start rolling out of Nissan's Sunderland factory in the UK during 2016, destined for world markets including Australia, where the QX30 will complement the larger QX70 SUV and the Q30 hatch will sit under the mid-size Q50 sedan.