When Fiat’s five-door 500L debuted last February, the best excuse for the company would have been to claim an epidemic of cryptomnesia in the design studio. How else to explain the 500L’s strong resemblance to the Mini Countryman? Derivative or not, the 500L will distance itself from the Countryman—as well as add some distance between its bumpers—when a three-row version of the Fiat arrives in the near future. We believe the stretched 500L will be called the 500XL.

Like the 500L, the three-row XL sits on what’s essentially new architecture, and much larger than the pipsqueak 500′s. The platform is called Small U.S. Wide; unshockingly, it sits below the Compact U.S. Wide architecture used for the Dodge Dart and a number of upcoming Jeep and Chrysler products. The 500L and XL will share their SUSW underpinnings with a future B-segment Jeep crossover.

To accommodate a third row, the 500XL will grow substantially longer than the 163-inch 500L, but it may end up as one of the smallest three-row vehicles on the European market. We won’t get the 500XL in the U.S., but the five-seat 500L will come here.

Read more at Car and Driver:

2013 / 2014 Fiat 500L -- Official Photos and Info
2012 Fiat 500 Abarth vs. Mini John Cooper Works -- Comparison Tests
Road Race Motorsports Fiat 500 Club Sportivo -- Instrumented Test