A local websit leaked some photos show a Yeti being tested on the road. May be this is not the final design of the upcoming Yeti.

..or maybe they simply make it appear like it has a spare there to hide its identity further?

I read somewhere recently that the Yeti was due to start production in China with an extended wheelbase - this would appear to support that.

The faux rear wheel thing is a common decoy. A while ago I saw a fleet of pre-production 'new new' Mini convertibles being driven up the M4 all covered in distraction patterns and gaffer tape. I noticed they had put tape over the bootlid in a way to suggest that there were external hinges present (as per the original 'new' Mini convertible) but lo-and-behold on launch the hinges were now internalised.

Those rear doors are very clearly longer than the European Yeti's rear doors as we know them.

The spare might be a decoy OR it might be part of the more outdoorsy spec level of the two mooted ones... They must know a lot of people moan about the tiny boot when you order the internal spare wheel?!

I'm not too sure about that spare wheel, OK it's handy to have without the loss of boot space and I think it would be good if they made a mod kit available to stick one on the back..... however this would need some serious gas struts to open (and hold) it with the extra weight of a wheel and tyre stuck on the back..... unless they have fitted a side hinge to the tailgate like RAV4 but that could restrict the width of the loading area.... add the resticted rear view.... nah I like the current version, much cleaner lines and no one can rob your spare if it isn't there.

One change that would be nice though is an electric window in the tailgate operated from inside or the remote key (long press tailgate button?) to chuck stuff in the back when some cheese in a van backs up and parks right on your tail.

Or the spare wheel could pivot like an ML Mercedes and the boot open up normally.