SPY PICS: Kia XCeed mini SUV for Oz

It's now well known that Kia has a sub-Sportage SUV planned for global introduction later this year and these spy photos snapped in Scandinavia recently indicate the new car is on track for a potential unveiling at the Frankfurt motor show in September.

Kia Australia, though unable to make any direct promises, makes no secret that it would be a welcome addition to the local line-up.

Clearly a reworked version of the current, second-generation Cee'd five-door wagon (it's also available in overseas markets as a five-door hatch as well as a rakish Pro_Cee'd Shooting Brake wagon) the new mini SUV is expected to be badged as the Kia XCeed.

Kia is reported to have benchmarked the XCeed against Volkswagen's T-Roc and, like the Hyundai Kona small SUV – which is based on a different platform – will be front-drive only.

The Kia Cee'd shares its platform with the Hyundai i30 and Elantra models, so it's to be expected the XCeed's engine line-up will reflect that. The current 150kW/265Nm 1.6-litre turbo and/or the base 112kW/192Nm 2.0-litre could make the cut in the XCeed, although it has been suggested the Hyundai-Kia conglomerate could also factor in the 1.0-litre turbo three-cylinder engine from the Picanto GT.

The spy photos indicate that the base bodywork of the Kia XCeed will pretty much mirror the Cee'd five-door wagon, jacked up for a bit of SUV attitude and featuring wider, extended wheel-arches.

The cladding doesn't reveal anything, but it's likely the front- and rear-ends will present with more aggressive treatments. Side window lines that appear in the test mule to kick up towards the rear look suspiciously as if they are attempts at putting viewers connecting the XCeed with the Cee'd wagon off the scent.

A sub-Sportage SUV would be a natural addition to the Kia line-up, especially given the swag of small SUVs (including Hyundai Kona, Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross and Toyota C-HR) that have recently entered the Australian market to contest segment-leaders such as Mitsubishi's ASX, Mazda's CX-3 and Honda's HR-V.

The Kia Cee'd that forms the base of the new XCeed was at one stage available for a brief period in Australia, in (now discontinued) 150kW three-door Pro_Cee'd form and was put up for judging in our 2015 Australia's Best Driver's Car awards.