Best look yet at the new Mazda CX-50! Super-stylish CX-5 sibling has the Toyota RAV4 in its sights

US media outlets have given us our best look yet at Mazda's upcoming CX-50, with design teams transforming the brand's official patents into real-world renders to give us peek at what to expect from the upcoming Toyota RAV4 fighter.

According to US outlet CarBuzz, the CX-5's new sibling will adopt a more modern and, dare we say fashionable, front end, borrowed heavily from the well-received design of the Mazda CX-30, including a smaller, uniquely shaped grille design and pencil-thin LEDs.

It's also graced by a lower-slung, more coupe-styled roofline and body shape than the CX-5, while the blacked-out roof and lower front-end look particularly sharp in this new render.

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The CX-50 is expected will share its platform with the CX-30 and, According to CarBuzz, offer what's being described as "enhanced all-wheel-drive capabilities".

As previously reported by CarsGuide, the remaining question is what will be powering the CX-50.

We had expected it to deviate from the CX-5's engine options to help justify its expected higher price positioning. That could've meant a member of the new family of in-line six-cylinder engines, offered with petrol, diesel and SkyActiv-X tech, could appear, with the bigger engine giving the CX-50 a proper point of difference against the more eco-focused RAV4.

But Mazda is instead reserving those engines – and its new rear-drive platform – for its bigger vehicles, leaving the CX-50 to share the CX-5's existing four-cylinder engine choices – a 2.5-litre petrol, a 2.5-litre turbo-petrol and a 2.2-litre turbo-diesel.

All should be revealed soon enough, with the CX-50 tipped for a reveal next year and ahead of a US-market debut in early 2022.

An Australian launch has been ruled out, as our market will instead be getting the new CX-60 mid-size SUV with Mazda's new engines and platform.