While Honda admits the U.S. car and truck market is unpredictable because it is so dependent on changing fuel prices - fuel is heavily taxed in Europe and Asia so changing crude prices have less of an effect on prices - it is clearly putting a lot of eggs in the hybrid market.

Indeed, Honda Motor Co. Executive Vice President Koichi Kondo told The Associated Press that Honda hopes to reach 500,000 hybrid sales around the world in the next year or so.

Honda's new Insight hybrid recently became Japan's best selling car, a first for a hybrid, and Kondo said Honda is promising a CR-Z hybrid for early next year in the U.S., European and Japanese markets with a hybrid version of the subcompact Fit to follow.

Kondo added that he was pushing to cut costs for hybrids by several hundred dollars and to boost their mileage by 10 percent.

- Peter C.T. Elsworth