Panasonic Corp. said Friday it plans to boost sales and domestic and international competitiveness by expanding green technology products.
Company President Fumio Otsubo disclosed green-related targets, including plans to invest ¥100 billion from fiscal 2010 to 2015 to increase solar cell production at Sanyo Electric Co., which recently become part of Panasonic.
The world's largest maker of plasma television also aims to hold the top share of the domestic solar cell market in fiscal 2012 and become one of the global top three by fiscal 2015. It also hopes to log more than ¥1 trillion in sales and over 40 percent of the global market for lithium-ion rechargeable batteries by the same year.
Otsubo said Panasonic hopes to become the leading green technology innovator by 2018, when the electronics giant marks its 100th anniversary. It hopes by that time to be logging ¥3 trillion in sales from its energy system business.
"We vision ourselves as the No. 1 green innovation electronics company in our 100th anniversary year," Otsubo told a press conference in Osaka Prefecture that was broadcast live in Tokyo. "Environment-friendliness will be the basis of all our business activities, and we will make sure there are no exceptions."
The green strategy also seems to be key in the competition with other electronics giants, including South Korean's Samsung Electronics Inc., which Otsubo said was the firm's strongest rival. He said it would be difficult to compete with exiting products.
Therefore, "we should create new fields, such as energy management, that are different from simple audio or home appliances. I think our ability to establish business and technology will have the advantage there," he said.