Honda is wasting no time in its effort to catch up to rival Toyota when it comes to hybrid technology. The company is launching no fewer than three separate hybrid vehicles in the next few years, including a version of the Fit, a production version of the CR-Z hybrid sports car concept, and an all new, five-door hatchback design, CEO Takeo Fukui announced during his mid-year address in Tokyo. Car & Driver reports that the manufacturer plans to sell 500,000 hybrids per year globally, with the addition of these three cars along with the current Civic Hybrid.

The article said that we should expect to see the new five-door hatchback first; it will take direct aim at the Toyota Prius and, according to Honda's plan, sell 200,000 vehicles per year (which is a hair more than what the Prius sold last year). The report said that it will look a bit like the FCX Clarify we've all seen already, though it will be smaller than that car and even the current Civic.

The CR-Z, meanwhile, will be a sporty car in the vein of the CRX, complete with the vertical glass section at the rear, dual exhaust tips, a low-slung grill in the front, and more aggressive headlights, the report said. It looks great in photos, but I'm waiting to see if it will have a stick; with regard to production hybrids, so far only the original Honda Insight had one.

Finally, the Fit hybrid, set to launch in 2015, will be significant primarily because of Fukui's promise that the premium for the hybrid over the conventional Fit "cannot exceed $2000"—a bold statement since the Fit is so inexpensive to begin with, but it's too far away to get excited about.