To date, Toyota has put one million hybrids on the road, and it’s just the beginning. Three of the biggest obsticals for hybrid technology are cost, availability, and Lithium Ion technology, and Toyota is expecting all those dominos to fall within three years.

Relentless cost reduction efforts lead Toyota to speculate that their margin on hybrids will equal that of petrol-only vehicles by 2010, and by 2020, Toyota expects that all of its vehicles will have the hybrid synergy drive system. The next Prius is expected to utilize Lithium Ion technology, which would be a big step forward in the chronology of hybrid powertrains. Reports Autoblog

Yet hot on the heels of Toyota’s announcement Honda has confirmed that beginning in mid-2009, a new hybrid will be launched.

Production is expected to be around 200,000 units per year, which is a substantial sum considering that Toyota’s popular Prius sold 186,000 units across the globe in 2006.

The pricing of the yet-to-be-named Honda hybrid is planned to be below the current Civic hybrid and styling will supposedly be heavily influenced by the Remix concept that debuted in LA last November.