World debut: Kia outs new Sportage

It's been leaked multiple times, officially sketched and spied in testing since January, and now here are the first three official photographs of Kia's all-new Sportage.

Due to make its global public premiere at next month's Frankfurt motor show before arriving Down Under early next year, the fourth-generation QL-series Sportage will replace Kia Australia's second best-seller after the Cerato.

No technical information has been released alongside this trio of exterior images, which reveal a sharper new five-door SUV design punctuated by high-mounted, back-swept headlights above a reshaped version of Kia's signature tiger-nose grille and quad-beam foglight bezels that lift the car's aggression and stance.

Pictured here in all-wheel drive GT Line form, riding on 19-inch alloy wheels, the 2016 Sportage was inspired by the 2013 Kia Provo concept car, Kia says, and was styled at Kia’s European design studio in Frankfurt, with input from the brand’s Namyang, Korea and Irvine, California design centres.

Kia says its design exudes "a sense of power and agility from every angle" thanks to "the contrast of smooth and sharp shapes found on some of the most iconic modern fighter jets" and "tension between sharp, defined feature lines and smooth surfacing".

No longer are the Sportage's headlights integrated into the grille, and the overall shape has a more raked profile with a roofline that tapers slightly towards the rear. Kia says the wheelbase is longer, the front overhang longer, the rear overhang shorter, the wheel-arches bolder and the bonnet more detailed.

Horizontal forms emphasise the car’s width at the rear, where the slim combination lamps are joined by a strip that runs the width of the rear, and the turn signals and reversing lights are separated and relocated lower down to "add more visual weight and a greater sense of stability to the lower half of the car".

Overall, the new Sportage's exterior design differs markedly from the highly regarded third-generation Sportage designed by former Kia designer Massimo Frascella, who is now at Jaguar Land Rover, under the direction of Hyundai-Kia design guru Peter Schreyer.

As striking as the new Sportage is on the outside, its interior is expected to mark an even bigger shift for Kia, which is understood to be using cabin design to differentiate itself from its competitors.

The cabin of the Mk4 Sportage, which shares its platform with sister Korean brand Hyundai's new Tucson mid-size SUV, is yet to be revealed but the company has claimed it will be its best ever.

"Inside, the all-new Sportage marries simple, modern style with rich material quality for Kia’s most refined, highest-quality cabin to date," said Kia previously.

"With the design of the new model led by the brand’s European design centre – located in Frankfurt – the all-new Sportage represents the future face of Kia."

Our information is the Mk4 Sportage will feature significant drivetrain updates including downsized turbocharged engines and a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, at least for Europe.

Under the bonnet, the new-generation Sportage will get improved 1.6-litre and 2.0-litre Hyundai group four-cylinder engines for the diesel line-up, while the petrol side is expected to add the all-new 1.2-litre T-GDi engine, and an upgraded 1.6-litre unit as well as a 2.0-litre turbo.

The current Sportage is offered in Australia with a choice of 135kW 2.0-litre turbo-diesel and 122kW 2.0-litre naturally-aspirated petrol four-cylinder engines.

It comes in four model grades with front- and all-wheel drive configuration, six-speed manual and automatic transmissions and a price range from $25,990 to $41,590 to directly rival the likes of the Mazda CX-5, Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V, Nissan X-TRAIL, Ford Kuga and Subaru Forester.