Toyota beat Honda to the punch by initially bringing the Prius to the market in 1997, and then in 2003 Toyota released a vastly improved model, which quickly an instant hit in Japan. Honda has released hybrid vehicles; however, they have not yet had the same success with their hybrid models as Toyota. Honda is now hoping to change that. It is planning to release three new hybrid vehicles with improved technology, which are aimed to be both more inexpensive and more profitable. Honda will need these three models to be an instant success as the company is quickly losing ground to Toyota.