Shortly after Mercedes->ke187 unveiled the new CLA sedan, Gordon Wagener -- the company's head of design -- announced that a shooting brake version was just around the corner. Still, ever since the announcement was made back in April, we never caught the CLA Shooting Brake out testing.

Today, however, our spy photographers got lucky and the model was spied up close wearing very little camouflage. In fact, we're not too sure why Mercedes to tried hide it, because the CLA->ke3130 Shooting Brake's back end will be basically identical to the CLS Shooting Brake, while the front end retains the CLA look.

As for the engine and gearbox lineup, expect it to borrow the sedan's 1.6-liter turbocharged engines offered in two output levels, one with 121 horsepower and one with 154 horsepower. Rumors suggest that we will also see an AMG version offered with the same 2.0-liter, four-cylinder unit that delivers 330 horsepower.

Click past the jump to read more about the Mercedes CLA Shooting Brake.

Spy shots

The prototype caught testing today wears minimal camouflage, as Mercedes tries to hide only the rear of the car, which will look almost completely different from the sedan. It will adopt the same lines from the bigger CLS to make it a stylish, smaller lifestyle wagon.

Up front, the model will adopt the same design language we have seen in the sedan, including a hood with power domes, a diamond-pattern radiator grille and new headlamps with LED lights arranged in such a way as to create the characteristic "flare effect."