With only two weeks left for the grand opening of the 2012 edition of the Geneva Motor Show, Mercedes-Benz is commencing the official teasing phase of its next generation A-Class compact hatchback by dropping the first undisguised images of its Audi A3 and BMW 1-Series competitor.

The German automaker published two pictures of the new A-Class' interior, the center console and part of the dashboard of which look conspicuously similar to that of the latest B-Class small minivan that's already on sale in Europe.

A bicyclist –no, we didn't make a mistake- captured footage of the all-new 2012 Mercedes-Benz A-Class hatchback while riding with his team from El Golfo to Playa Blanca on the Spanish island of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands.

It seems that the German premium carmaker was at the island to shoot video and pictures of the luxury compact model for its press material.

The A-Class seen here is the five-door hatchback model, which will be the first body style to be launched onto the market. Mercedes has already confirmed that the 5-door version will make its world premiere at the 2012 Geneva Auto Show in early March. A sportier looking three-door model will follow, possibly withing the next year.

Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche has made it clear that he wants Mercedes-Benz to become the number one premium manufacturer in the world, a title that for the time being belongs to its arch-rival BMW.

Last year, Mercedes sold 1.36 million units, around 300,000 less than BMW. According to Manager Magazin, Zetsche plans to reach the number one spot by almost doubling the three-pointed star’s production to 2.7 million vehicles by 2020 and increase its operating profit beyond 10 percent.

Like many other carmakers lately, Mercedes-Benz is preparing consumers for a new model debut through a dedicated app for smart phones. In the German firm's case, the new model is the upcoming 2012 A-Class premium hatchback, which will make its global premiere at the Geneva Motor Show in March.

To make things a bit more interesting, we learn that Mercedes will put several camouflaged 2012 A-Class hatchbacks in circulation in various German cities as part of a competition that will see one contestant winning a trip to the car's unveiling in Geneva.

The upcoming third generation A-Class is one of the most interesting new vehicles currently being prepared by Mercedes-Benz and all for good reason as the only common factor it has with the current model is its name.

You see, the Stuttgart-based company decided to compete more directly with the BMW 1-Series and even the higher-end versions of the VW Golf and as a result, opted for a sportier looking hatchback body built on a conventional platform instead of the tall, minivan-like shape and sandwich floor of the first two generations of the A-Class.

These latest spy shots of a five-door prototype of the A-Class testing in Europe suggest that the development of the car is nearing its end as engineers have removed much of its camouflage. If you want to see what the final model will look like, you can check out the patent images we posted earlier this year.

Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Japan’s second biggest automaker, wants Nissan's luxury brand, Infiniti, to have a 10 percent share in the premium segment, which amounts to 500,000 units.

The “Power 88” plan that Ghosn revealed last June calls for the rapid expansion of Infiniti, which is an established player in the U.S. market but almost non-existent in Europe: in 2010 it sold 4,500 units, a tenth of BMW’s January 45,000 sales…

Back in August, we revealed that Infiniti was preparing a small, entry-level premium model to compete with the likes of Audi’s A3 and BMW’s 1-Series, and that it would use another premium carmaker’s help: Mercedes Benz and its newly developed MFA platform employed by the 2012 A-Class.

If Mercedes-Benz manages to keep the new A-Class under wraps, we will most likely get our first look at the five-door hatchback version at next month's Frankfurt auto show.

And while we're patiently waiting for the standard A-Class to be officially revealed, our spy photographers moved on to the next big thing from Mercedes as they managed to capture the flagship AMG model testing in Germany.