What links the election of Barack Obama to the United States presidency with a deal by the world’s largest maker of consumer electronics to acquire a struggling rival? The answer is climate change. Panasonic wants to get its hands on Sanyo Electric’s production of solar panels and electric car batteries, two technologies essential to realising Obama’s dream of a greener America. Notable among the president-elect’s campaign pledges is an 80 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, and putting “one million plug-in hybrid cars—cars that can get 150 miles per gallon—on the road by 2015”.
Panasonic Reaches for the Sun
What links the election of Barack Obama to the United States presidency with a deal by the world’s largest maker of consumer electronics to acquire a struggling rival? The answer is climate change. Panasonic wants to get its hands on Sanyo Electric’s production of solar panels and electric car batteries, two technologies essential to realising Obama’s dream of a greener America. Notable among the president-elect’s campaign pledges is an 80 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, and putting “one million plug-in hybrid cars—cars that can get 150 miles per gallon—on the road by 2015”.
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