Chevrolet Trax (2013) first official picture

Chevrolet will show this new baby SUV called the Trax at the 2012 Paris motor show, before UK sales start in spring 2013.

If that name sounds familiar, it's because Chevrolet showed a concept car called Trax at the New York auto show in 2007. That's the show car depicted in our second image (only one pic of the actual 2012 Trax has been released today).

Not a huge amount is known about the new smaller SUV. Chevrolet has confirmed it will be sold globally, in more than 140 countries and calls it 'an all-new small sport utility vehicle.'

'Trax provides Chevrolet an entry into a growing small SUV segment and delivers the flexibility, great fuel economy and car-like handling that urban explorers require,' said Susan Docherty, president and managing director of Chevrolet Europe.

Pretty compact, judging by this first official photograph. But Chevy says there is room for five passengers and 'generous cargo space'.

The Trax is bound to share componentry and industrial underpinnings of the Vauxhall Mokka - putting it somewhere between the Nissan Juke and Qashqai in footprint - and is due in showrooms in spring 2013.

That would point to similar engines; the Mokka uses a 1.4 and 1.6 petrol, with the choice of a 1.7 turbodiesel. Most models in Europe would be front-wheel drive, but GM's platform can serve up four-wheel drive to territories demanding better traction for slippery roads.

By Tim Pollard