Kia is planning to unveil a new sports car concept at September’s Frankfurt Motor Show, and if successful could even start production of the new car by 2009. Kia’s chief designer, Peter Schreyer, is the man responsible for the original Audi TT and he’s reported to be employing the same techniques that he used at Audi to develop Kia’s latest designs.

According to the UK’s AutoExpress, the new project has been codenamed Project Snowflake, the TT project was known internally as Raindrop. An inside source has revealed that the similar naming practice is an indication of the link between the two cars, adding "it will shock the world when it's unveiled this autumn.”

This will be Kia’s first sports car and would fill a gaping hole in the Korean carmaker’s lineup if produced. Power is expected to come from an all-new 2.0L turbo four-cylinder engine co-developed with Hyundai, which is also expected to appear in a sports version of the Cee’d hatch. The source also revealed that Kia was developing a new small hatch to rival the Ford Fiesta, which could be in showrooms by 2009. We hope the new cars follow the design direction previewed by the recent ex_cee’d cabrio concept. It showed that there’s definitely some potential for Kia to create an affordable and stylish range that could sell in high numbers.