– Developing markets in emerging economies by utilizing SCiB™*1 with long life performance in hot environments –

TOKYO, Oct. 31, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Toshiba Corporation  and Naturenix Inc., a battery tech startup from Shimane University, have started a demonstration test of a battery subscription service for drivers of electric motorcycle taxis in Bangkok, Thailand on September 30, 2024.

In Bangkok, electric motorcycle taxis help people avoid traffic congestion, but face the problem of high temperatures that degrade battery performance and life. The demonstration test will use Toshiba rechargeable lithium-ion batteries “SCiB™”, known for reliable, long-life performance in high temperatures, to ensure extended stable operation of electric motorcycle taxis, eliminate the large initial investment in a battery, and to reduce running costs. Improved battery life will also reduce materials consumption and contribute to lower environmental impact.

Lithium-ion battery performance degrades in high temperatures. The problem is particularly pronounced in two- and three-wheeled vehicles, where it is difficult to add cooling mechanisms, especially in hot countries like Thailand. Expensive lithium-ion batteries often need to be replaced after only one or two years of use, making their use economically impractical and limited. There have also been accidents where batteries have caught fire, highlighting the need for batteries with high-level safety features.

While demand for lithium-ion batteries in emerging economies is expected to exceed 600GWh by 2035, only 2.8% of that is expected to be from lithium-ion batteries for motorcycles and three-wheeled vehicles, both widely used in daily transportation. The reasons for this low demand in a sector where batteries could play a major role degradation and safety issues. Solutions in these areas will help to unlock a significant market for batteries for motorcycles and three-wheelers.

Working with Windee International, a joint venture with a local parking management servicer, Naturenix will provide a battery replacement service for electric motorcycles. The demonstration test will use Toshiba’s battery SCiB™. It will be mounted with sensors that monitor its characteristics and the collected data will be transmitted to Naturenix for analysis with AI. User of the service will be asked to complete a questionnaire on the service. The company will also monitor carbon dioxide emissions and examine the effectiveness of the service in reducing environmental impacts. The data collected will determine the effectiveness of the service and support preparations for a wider roll out in FY2025.

The Toshiba’s battery SCiB™ used in the demonstration test is characterized by its long life and high level safety, with minimal performance deterioration even after over 20,000*2 charge-discharge cycles. This longevity is particularly important in hot environments like Thailand. It also has excellent safety features, making it less likely to experience abnormal heating or ignition, even in the event of an internal short circuit.

Naturenix’s packing and charging technologies minimize heat generation by reducing internal resistance to the extent possible. By utilizing these technologies, the company aims to achieve longer battery life and higher output, as well as faster recharging, in as short a time as six minutes. It also expects to reduce the number of batteries on standby for recharging, and by doing so cut the service operating costs.

This battery pack’s data analysis functions constantly monitor the state of the battery. This is communicated to AI that can provide highly accurate estimates of battery degradation. Depending on the degree of degradation, after use on e-motorcycles it can be reused in a number of applications, such as being converted to a stationary storage battery.

Through Fleet operators, Naturenix will lease batteries to its customers, electric motorcycle drivers, on a subscription model. It allows Fleet operators to provide electric motorcycles to their customers without the cost of the batteries, reducing initial costs that are high barrier to entry for electrification. As the battery manufacturer, Toshiba expects to generate sustained revenue from battery rentals, as well as from manufacturing and sales.

For this demonstration, Toshiba will supply SCiB™ and Naturenix will be responsible for development and manufacturing the battery packs. Both will work for asset management, system development, installation, and providing the subscription services to customers. Naturenix will also establish a subsidiary in Thailand in FY2025 to mass produce battery packs with SCiB™, with the aim of supplying batteries not only for electric motorcycles and three-wheeled vehicles, but also for forklifts and golf carts.

About Toshiba

Toshiba Corporation leads a global group of companies that combines knowledge and capabilities from almost 150 years of experience in a wide range of businesses—from energy and social infrastructure to electronic devices—with world-class capabilities in information processing, digital and AI technologies. These distinctive strengths support Toshiba in building infrastructure that everyone can enjoy, and a connected data society, and in achieving the Company’s ultimate goal, a future that realizes carbon neutrality and a circular economy. Guided by the Basic Commitment of the Toshiba Group, “Committed to People, Committed to the Future,” Toshiba contributes to society’s positive development with services and solutions that lead to a better world.

For more information, visit https://www.global.toshiba/ww/top.html or follow Toshiba Corporation on  LinkedIn.

About Naturenix

Naturenix is a start-up company that aims to create a world where nature and electronics coexist through the provision of battery longevity technologies and next-generation energy platforms. By collecting dynamic data on batteries in actual use and analyzing it with AI technology, the company promotes open innovation in batteries and ensures long-term use across multiple applications by guaranteeing asset value based on an understanding of battery use and degradation. For more information, please visit www.naturenix.co.jp

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SOURCE Toshiba Corporation

Zombie-Property Trends Follow Decrease in Overall Foreclosure Cases

IRVINE, Calif., Oct. 31, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — ATTOM, a leading curator of land, property data, and real estate analytics, today released its fourth-quarter 2024 Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report showing that 1.4 million (1,355,909) residential properties in the United States are vacant. That figure represents 1.3 percent, or one in 77 homes, across the nation – virtually the same as in third quarter and up just slightly from a year ago.

The report analyzes publicly recorded real estate data collected by ATTOM — including foreclosure status, equity and owner-occupancy status — matched against monthly updated vacancy data. (See full methodology below).

The report also reveals that 215,601 residential properties in the U.S. are in the process of foreclosure in the fourth quarter of this year, down 3.3 percent from the third quarter of 2024 and down 32.8 percent from the fourth quarter of 2023.

Among those pre-foreclosure properties, about 7,100 sit vacant as zombie foreclosures (pre-foreclosure properties abandoned by owners) in the fourth quarter of 2024. That figure is slightly above the number in the prior quarter, but down 20.2 percent from a year ago.

The latest count of zombie homes extends a long-term pattern of those properties representing only a tiny portion of the nation’s total housing stock, currently at just one of every 14,591 homes around the U.S. The ratio is virtually unchanged from one in 14,776 in the prior quarter, but well down from one in 11,412 in the fourth quarter of last year, marking one of the lowest levels in the past five years. Zombie foreclosures, which can attract vandals and spread neighborhood blight, continue to have little or no impact on most local housing markets. That phenomenon remains one of many enduring effects of a housing market boom around the nation now in its 13th year.

“The near-total disappearance of zombie foreclosures has been and still is one of the more subtle, but important benefits of the country’s soaring housing market. Those properties have gone from a plague in many areas of the U.S. following the Great Recession of the late 2000s, when millions of homes fell into foreclosure, to a distant memory in most communities today,” said Rob Barber, CEO for ATTOM. “That’s unlikely to change much in the near future given that record home prices are keeping home-equity levels at historic highs and foreclosures cases dropping. On top of that, the supply of homes is so tight that even when a property is abandoned, buyers are more likely to swoop in and pick it up.”

Zombie foreclosures up by small amounts quarterly around U.S. while down annually

A total of 7,109 residential properties facing possible foreclosure have been vacated by their owners nationwide in the fourth quarter of 2024, up 1.5 percent from 7,007 in the third quarter of 2024 but down from 8,903 in the fourth quarter of 2023. The number of zombie properties has gone up quarterly in 30 states – usually increasing by less than 20. The number has declined or stayed the same in 20 states.

The biggest percent decreases from the fourth quarter of 2023 to the fourth quarter of 2024 in states that had at least 50 zombie homes a year ago are in Connecticut (zombie properties down 87 percent, from 100 to 13), Iowa (down 76 percent, from 281 to 68), North Carolina (down 73 percent, from 195 to 53), New Mexico (down 72 percent, from 81 to 23) and Oklahoma (down 71 percent, from 197 to 58).

The only annual increases among states that had at least 50 zombie foreclosures in the fourth quarter of 2024 have come in Kansas (zombie properties up 126 percent, from 35 to 79), Arizona (up 114 percent, from 28 to 60), Florida (up 65 percent, from 1,199 to 1,974), Texas (up 52 percent, from 126 to 191) and New Jersey (up 14 percent, from 188 to 215).

2024 Zombie Foreclosure Infographic

Overall vacancy rates change by tiny amounts

The vacancy rate for all residential properties in the U.S. has remained virtually the same for 11 quarters in a row, hovering around 1.3 percent. The latest figure of 1.31 percent (one in 77 properties) is the same as in the third quarter of 2024 and up slightly from 1.27 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.

States with the highest vacancy rates for all residential properties are Oklahoma (2.37 percent, or one in 42 homes, during the fourth quarter of this year), Kansas (2.28 percent, or one in 44), Missouri (2.15 percent, or one in 47), Alabama (2.11 percent, or one in 47) and West Virginia (2.08 percent, or one in 48).

Those with the lowest overall vacancy rates are New Hampshire (0.34 percent, or one in 296 homes), Vermont (0.40 percent, or one in 248), New Jersey (0.46 percent, or one in 216), Idaho (0.50 percent, or one in 200) and Connecticut (0.57 percent, or one in 175).

Other high-level findings from the fourth quarter of 2024:

Among 170 metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S. with at least 100,000 residential properties in the fourth quarter of 2024, those with at least 100 properties facing possible foreclosure and the highest zombie foreclosure rates are Peoria, IL (22.4 percent of properties in the foreclosure process are vacant); Toledo, OH (11.6 percent); Wichita, KS (9.9 percent); Evansville, IN (9.2 percent) and Canton, OH (8.8 percent).

The highest zombie-foreclosure rates in major metro areas with at least 500,000 residential properties and at least 100 homes facing foreclosure in the fourth quarter of 2024 are in Cleveland, OH (8.5 percent of homes in the foreclosure process are vacant); Indianapolis, IN (8.4 percent); St. Louis, MO (8.4 percent); Kansas City, MO (6.5 percent) and Baltimore, MD (6.4 percent).

Among the 25 million investor-owned homes throughout the U.S. in the fourth quarter of 2024, about 871,200 are vacant, or 3.5 percent. The highest levels of vacant investor-owned homes are in Indiana (6.7 percent vacant), Illinois (5.9 percent), Alabama (5.9 percent), Oklahoma (5.8 percent) and Kansas (5.7 percent).

Among the roughly 12,000 foreclosed, bank-owned homes in the U.S. during the fourth quarter of 2024, 13.9 percent are vacant. In states with at least 50 vacant bank-owned homes, the largest vacancy rates are in Missouri (24.5 percent), Ohio (24.1 percent), Indiana (23.7 percent) Illinois (19.6 percent), and Michigan (17.7 percent).

The highest zombie-foreclosure rates in U.S. counties with at least 500 properties in the foreclosure process during the fourth quarter of 2024 are in Broome County (Binghamton), NY (15 percent of homes in the foreclosure process are vacant); Marion County (Indianapolis), IN (9.9 percent); Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), OH (9.7 percent); Niagara County (Niagara Falls), NY (9.3 percent) and Pinellas County (St. Petersburg), FL (7.9 percent).

Among zip codes with enough data to analyze, 66 of the top 100 where zombie properties represent the largest portions of all homes are in New York. The largest portions are in zip codes 61605 in Peoria (Peoria County), IL (one in 168 homes); 61603 in Peoria (Peoria County), IL (one in 232); 14892 in Waverly (Tioga County), NY (one in 260); 13795 in Kirkwood (Broome County), NY (one in 284 homes) and 13350 in Herkimer (Herkimer County), NY (one in 287).

Report Methodology

ATTOM analyzed county tax assessor data for 103.7 million residential properties for vacancy, broken down by foreclosure status and owner-occupancy status in the fourth quarter of 2024. Only metropolitan statistical areas with at least 100,000 residential properties, counties with at least 50,000 residential properties and zip codes with at least 1,000 residential properties were included in the analysis.

About ATTOM
ATTOM provides premium property data and analytics that power a myriad of solutions that improve transparency, innovation, digitization and efficiency in a data-driven economy. ATTOM multi-sources property tax, deed, mortgage, foreclosure, environmental risk, natural hazard, and neighborhood data for more than 155 million U.S. residential and commercial properties covering 99 percent of the nation’s population. A rigorous data management process involving more than 20 steps validates, standardizes, and enhances the real estate data collected by ATTOM, assigning each property record with a persistent, unique ID — the ATTOM ID. The 30TB ATTOM Data Warehouse fuels innovation in many industries including mortgage, real estate, insurance, marketing, government and more through flexible data delivery solutions that include ATTOM Cloud, bulk file licenses, property data APIs, real estate market trends, property navigator and more. Also, introducing our newest innovative solution, making property data more readily accessible and optimized for AI applications – AI-Ready Solutions. 

Media Contact:
Megan Hunt
megan.hunt@attomdata.com 

Data and Report Licensing:
datareports@attomdata.com

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SOURCE ATTOM

Global Teams Recognized for Stunning Digital Initiatives, Utilizing Innovative Technologies

CUPERTINO, Calif., Oct. 30, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Constellation Research, Inc. today announced the winners of its 14th annual SuperNova Awards, a prestigious recognition for teams building innovative and disruptive programs to create business transformation. The winners were announced at the company’s annual conference Connected Enterprise on October 30.

“We’re once again seeing transformative innovation built on emerging technologies,” said Doug Henschen, vice president and principal analyst at Constellation Research. “Congratulations to the 36 finalists and to the winners in eight categories that stood out by delivering breakthrough business results and outstanding returns on technology investments.”

As digital change continues to dominate the agenda of the global C-Suite, organizations across all industries and geographies must make deeper investments to create true impact. This year’s SuperNova winners represent individuals, teams and organizations who overcame significant hurdles amidst the boom of generative AI, machine learning and a changing global economy. They have demonstrated excellence in responding to disruptive forces, implementing novel initiatives, and delivering proven results with the technical prowess needed for reinventing modern organizations.

“The SuperNova Awards are the most prestigious and oldest awards for business transformation. This year’s finalists faced tough competition as submissions showed significant Return on Transformation Investment (RTI),” noted R “Ray” Wang, CEO and founder of Constellation Research. “Winners understood how to find the balance between short term gains and long-term strategic shifts.”

2024 SuperNova Award Winners

AI & Augmented Humanity
City of Santa Monica

Data to Decisions
Anheuser-Busch InBev

Digital Safety, Governance, Privacy & Cybersecurity
Trust Alliance New Zealand

Future of Work: Employee Experience
Henkel

Future of Work: Human Capital Management
Capgemini

Marketing & Sales Effectiveness
IBM

Next-Generation Customer Experience
M1

Tech Optimization & Modernization
Ring Container Technologies

The SuperNova Award winners were selected by a combination of industry judging and public polling. For more information, visit https://www.constellationr.com/events/supernova/2024.

ABOUT CONSTELLATION RESEARCH

Constellation Research is a technology research and advisory firm based in Silicon Valley. We deliver strategic guidance to companies seeking to transform their businesses through the early adoption of disruptive technology. Our analysts draw on their experiences as practitioners to deliver pragmatic advice to CXOs leading digital transformation within their organizations. Clients include board of directors, C-suite executives, line-of-business leaders, and IT visionaries who are not afraid to challenge the status quo. Our mission is to conduct research on emerging technologies, identify and validate trends, and empower our clients to succeed in the digital economy. Constellation Research also hosts DisrupTV, a show hosted by our founder R “Ray” Wang, which features disruptive leaders and reaches 40k+ viewers each week.

Media Contact

Elle Froze, Constellation Research, 414-254-3525, elle@constellationr.com, https://www.constellationr.com/

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SOURCE Constellation Research