Mitsubishi has finally been spotted testing their next-generation midsize SUV, and it looks like the Japanese manufacturer is still in the early stages of development.

The engineering prototype was spotted by a Spanish website, where the Mitsubishi SUV was fitted with the front-end of the new Triton while the rest of the body still has the features of the current-gen Montero Sport.

However, when you take a closer look, the wheels stick out of the fenders more than the current-generation model which suggests it could already be wearing the chassis and suspension of the new Triton where the next-gen Montero Sport will be based from.

If we can recall, Mitsubishi has done the same during the testing and development phase of the all-new Triton, where they put an old Strada body shell on top of the new Triton platform.

Furthermore, the prototype is already wearing what looks like a set of 20-inch wheels. This could hint that Mitsubishi could be fine-tuning the suspension behavior of the new model with bigger wheels once it goes into production.

While other details are yet to be announced, it’s expected that the next-gen Montero Sport will be powered by the same 2.4-liter 4N16 twin-turbo inline-four MIVEC diesel that produces 204 PS and 470 Nm of torque. It remains to be seen if Mitsubishi will keep the 8-speed auto for the Montero Sport, as the Triton kept the 6-speed auto from the previous-gen Strada.

As per the “Challenge 2025” business plan of Mitsubishi Motors, we could expect the next-gen Montero Sport to debut by around the second half of next year. Now that a prototype model has been spotted, we can expect a few more of these spy pictures before Mitsubishi finally rolls out the production version. Watch this space for further updates.