Lexus originally introduced the L-Tuned name for their factory tuning arm back in 2000, but sales were dismal, and interest fizzled due to the mostly cosmetic upgrades. This time, Lexus is bringing more firepower to bring the fight to Mercedes’ AMG and BMW’s M division cars.

In an interview with Automotive News, Jim Lentz, COO of Toyota sales, said that the “time is right to stretch Lexus as a core-luxury brand," but backed it up by saying no announcement would be made yet. Lexus has always done things a little differently to ze Germans, so we have a feeling they may choose to install hybrid engines as a “power boost” for their top end performance models. We’ve already driven the high-performance Lexus hybrid GS450h and performance is stunning.