CHANGZHOU, China, Sept. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Earlier this month, Segway brought together more than 160 guests in Changzhou, including representatives from over 60 shared mobility operators, industry partners and international and domestic media. The event combined factory visits, product launches, test rides and discussions around the operational challenges facing the sector.

Segway has worked with shared micromobility operators since the industry’s early growth years. As operators have shifted their focus from fleet size towards profitability, uptime and long-term asset performance, Segway has expanded its role beyond hardware to technology, service and lifecycle support.

“We don’t just provide products. We also provide services and solutions. We want to work with our partners to solve real-world challenges and help them operate more efficiently,” said Cid Wang, CEO and Co-Founder of Segway.

A central theme of the event was TCO, Segway’s framework for assessing fleet economics through revenue generation, operating expenditure and capital investment. Rather than focusing on purchase price alone, it considers vehicle availability, maintenance, energy use and asset life — all of which affect long-term fleet returns.

“TCO is never just about building a cheaper vehicle. It’s about designing fleets that deliver stronger returns year over year,” said Alan Zhao, General Manager of Segway-Ninebot Commercial Mobility Business Division.

Segway also unveiled its third-generation shared e-scooter, the R1, alongside the new C Series shared e-bikes, including the C100 and C200.

The platforms were developed around what Segway calls OCG — Operators, Consumers and Government. For operators, the focus is on uptime, serviceability and operating efficiency; for riders, safety, comfort and ease of use; and for cities, more accurate positioning, safer riding and more responsible fleet management.

The R1 features a modular architecture, integrated IoT, improved positioning and rider-assistance technologies. The C Series applies a similar platform approach to shared e-bikes, with greater component commonality and maintenance-focused design.

Segway also presented the F100, an e-bike developed for delivery applications, as it explores broader first- and last-mile use cases together with customers and partners.

For Segway, the next stage of shared micromobility is about keeping vehicles in service longer, reducing operating resources and helping fleets integrate more effectively into urban transport systems.

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SOURCE Segway

IFS research shows utilities prioritising grid hardening, storage and Industrial AI to boost reliability, manage demand and control costs while advancing the energy transition.

LONDON, Sept. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — New research from IFS, the leading provider of Industrial AI software, reveals a dramatic pendulum shift across global energy and utilities investment priorities, previously dominated by sustainability and decarbonization goals. Aging infrastructure, affordability pressures, and reliability challenges are forcing utility leaders to adopt a more balanced investment strategy to strengthen core operations and advance the energy transition. The research finds utilities are turning to grid hardening, new energy sources and storage, and better asset lifecycle management, all underpinned by Industrial AI to optimize performance, improve resilience, and deliver better outcomes for customers and regulators.

The new global study, conducted by Censuswide and spanning 850 C-level and senior utility executives, highlights a sector operating under immense multi-front pressures driven by unprecedented load growth from data centers and electrification and extreme weather events.

Carol Johnston, VP of Energy and Utilities at IFS, puts the findings into perspective: “The pendulum in the energy sector has swung fast. Sustainability continues to be a critical objective for utilities, but evolving operational and geopolitical realities are driving a more balanced investment agenda. Decades of under-investment, coupled with rigid regulatory rate cases and an aging grid, have created an operational environment where reliability, resilience, and affordability must be addressed simultaneously.”

Here are the key findings:

Hardening grid reliability top of mind

Hardening existing grid reliability to build grid resilience against extreme weather events and cyber threats tops operational priorities, identified as the most critical operational challenges facing utility leaders today. This has led to energy and utilities organizations re-evaluating existing infrastructure – with 26% actively re-evaluating asset portfolios to prioritize investment in existing grid infrastructure.

AI is now considered essential for the energy transition

Industrial AI is emerging as the critical layer required to unite fragmented systems, predict equipment failures before they trigger grid downtime, and automate complex operational workflows. No surprise that 57% of utility leaders believe AI is critical for reducing operational costs, while nearly half (47%) say AI is critical for optimizing asset performance and managing electrification-driven demand growth.

Asset lifecycle management is becoming the battleground for utility modernization and bridging operational silos

The research evidences that new technology adoption is hindered by foundational data challenges –49% are constrained by operational data silos that hinder real-time decision-making. Despite heavy investment, most utilities remain in the “developing” stage of asset lifecycle management, with siloed systems and limited predictive capabilities – only 33% describe their asset lifecycle management capabilities as advanced, with 51% of claiming they have asset management systems in place, but operate in silos, with limited predictive capabilities. This clearly highlights utilities’ appetite for a modernized asset management approach being central to resilience, reliability, and investment planning.

Carol Johnston, VP, Energy, Utilities and Resources, IFS, is clear: “Utilities cannot invest their way out of today’s challenges through new infrastructure alone. Addressing growing demand and affordability pressures requires a balanced strategy that gets more from existing assets while making smart investments in new capacity, grid modernization, and resiliency. Industrial AI provides the decision intelligence needed to optimize asset performance, maximize returns on capital, and maintain reliable service in an increasingly complex operating environment.”

Preparing the grid of tomorrow – new storage, sources, and security

As utilities struggle to balance capital investment between maintaining legacy infrastructure and expanding capacity, traditional grid management methods are reaching their limit. The research highlights a growing shift toward grid flexibility, including Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) and Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems (DERMS), to manage demand volatility and protect against prolonged outages. Looking ahead, utility leaders predict advanced geothermal (22%) and Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) (18%) will have the greatest long-term impact on securing continuous clean baseload power. while 46% say AI is critical for accelerating renewable and distributed energy integration.

The findings reinforce that digital transformation strategies in energy and utilities must prioritize measurable operational outcomes – specifically grid uptime, customer experience, and regulatory compliance – over generic software adoption. By combining unified asset lifecycle management with purpose-built Industrial AI, utilities can secure supply, protect critical infrastructure, and build a flexible foundation for future clean generation technologies.

The full Censuswide report, commissioned by IFS, will be available at the end of September. To find out more information, visit ifs.com or contact us via press@ifs.com(Opens in a new tab).

Join IFS at Unleashed 2026, October 12–16 in Orlando, Florida to learn how energy and utilities organizations are leveraging Industrial AI to meet the grid challenges of today and tomorrow. Register at unleashed.ifs.com(Opens in a new tab)

IFS Press Contacts:

EUROPE / MEA / APJ: Adam Gillbe
IFS, Director of Corporate and Executive Communications
Email: adam.gillbe@ifs.com(Opens in a new tab)

NORTH AMERICA / LATAM: Mairi Morgan
IFS, Director of Corporate and Executive Communications
Email: mairi.morgan@ifs.com(Opens in a new tab)

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

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MUMBAI, India, Sept. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Protean eGov Technologies today launched its Enterprise DPDP Governance & Consent Platform at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai. The platform was launched at the Protean pavilion by Shri Suvendu Pati, Chief General Manager, FinTech Department, Reserve Bank of India, who spoke at the event on consent as a design principle for India’s digital financial ecosystem.

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 has moved decisively from statute to operation. With the DPDP Rules notified in November 2025 and substantive obligations enforceable from May 2027, organisations are required to demonstrate privacy governance that is continuous, auditable and evidenced.

At the centre of the platform is the consent stack. DPDP-compliant consent journeys are embedded directly within an enterprise’s existing web, mobile and assisted channels, so a customer never leaves the journey they are in. When consent is granted, updated or withdrawn, the policy engine validates the request, propagates it automatically to every mapped enterprise application and third-party processor, tracks acknowledgement, and writes an immutable artefact to the consent vault – producing regulator-ready evidence from the customer’s action itself rather than from a subsequent reconciliation exercise.

The platform brings the eight statutory obligations of a Data Fiduciary into a single operating system for privacy, organised across four governance pillars. Internal Privacy Governance covers data discovery, the Record of Processing Activities, data flow mapping, gap assessment and governance dashboards. Processor Risk Governance covers Data Protection Impact Assessments, a central processor registry, third-party risk assessment and remediation tracking. Data Principal Governance covers consent management, a rights management portal, grievance redress and dedicated workflows for minors and nominees. Regulatory Operations covers retention and deletion, breach management, audit monitoring and compliance reporting.

Speaking at the launch, Shri Suvendu Pati, Chief General Manager, FinTech Department, Reserve Bank of India, said: “The Digital Personal Data Protection Act moves consent from a matter of paperwork to a matter of design. For the financial sector, the task ahead is to make consent verifiable, revocable and auditable at scale – so that every individual knows what data is being used, for what purpose, and retains the ability to withdraw that permission at any time.”

Speaking on the launch, Mr. Ajay Rajan, MD & CEO, Protean eGov Technologies, said: “Consent is becoming the connective tissue of India’s digital economy. Our conviction is that privacy and growth are not opposing forces – an enterprise that can show an individual exactly what was permitted, when, and for how long, earns the trust that lets it do more, not less. That is the shift we are enabling: from privacy as a legal obligation to privacy as an enterprise capability.”

Speaking at the launch, Mr. Rakesh Dosi, Chief Business & Product Officer, Protean eGov Technologies, said: “Most enterprises today can tell you their privacy policy. Very few can tell you, for a single customer, what was consented to and which downstream system acted on it. One customer action should update every mapped system and leave behind evidence – that is what we have built.”

Protean eGov Technologies has built and operated national digital public infrastructure for over two decades. As an Account Aggregator licence holder, the company brings direct operating experience of the consent artefact lifecycle – issuance, revocation and secure data sharing – at national scale. This is that same conviction applied to Privacy.

To know more – https://www.proteantech.in/services/consent-stack 

Product note

Protean Enterprise DPDP Governance & Consent Platform

Launched at the Global Fintech Fest, 11ᵗʰ September 2026, Mumbai

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 is no longer a policy exercise. The Rules were notified in November 2025, the Consent Manager registration framework comes into force in November 2026, and substantive obligations become enforceable from May 2027 with penalties of up to ₹250 crore. Multiple stakeholders – the Data Principal, the Consent Manager, processors, third-party vendors, internal business functions and the Data Protection Board – converge on a single accountable owner: the Data Fiduciary. Every one of those connections is an obligation to design, run and evidence.

Embedded consent experience. DPDP-compliant consent journeys are deployed within an enterprise’s existing web, mobile, branch, contact centre and partner channels. Consent is captured against the five principles of validity – freely given, specific, informed, unconditional and unambiguous – with itemised notice and unbundled purposes. Customers never leave the journey they are in.

Intelligent consent orchestration. A single customer action – consent granted, updated or withdrawn – is validated by the policy engine, propagated automatically to every mapped enterprise application and processor with acknowledgement tracked, and recorded instantly as an immutable artefact in the consent vault. Compliance evidence is a by-product of the transaction, not a separate exercise.

Four governance pillars. Internal Privacy Governance – data discovery, ROPA, data flow mapping, gap assessment and governance dashboards. Processor Risk Governance – DPIA, third-party risk management, processor registry and remediation tracking. Data Principal Governance – consent management, rights management portal, grievance management, minor and nominee workflows. Regulatory Operations – retention and deletion, breach management, audit monitoring and compliance reporting.

Regulatory automation. Retention runs on configurable, purpose-based timelines with automated deletion triggers, propagation to processors and retained deletion evidence. Breach management runs from incident intake and severity classification through a 72-hour notification workflow and regulator communication to root cause analysis and closure.

Relationship-based workflows. Verifiable guardian consent before any processing of a minor’s personal data, with age validation and transition on attaining majority. Nominee registration with identity validation and controlled, auditable rights access upon a defined invocation event.

One source of truth. Discover, map, design, orchestrate, evidence – every downstream privacy activity is derived from verified enterprise metadata rather than manual configuration, on a governance foundation of a policy engine, workflow orchestration, an API gateway, the consent vault and an immutable audit trail.

A six-stage path to compliance maturity runs from data discovery and ROPA through data flow mapping, DPIA and processor assessment, and gap remediation, to continuous privacy operations – combining advisory, governance, process design and technology enablement in a single engagement.

Protean eGov Technologies has built and operated national digital public infrastructure for over two decades, is an Account Aggregator licence holder with proven experience of the consent artefact lifecycle, and has implemented consent management capabilities for initiatives including Bima Sugam and CERSAI. This is that same conviction applied to Privacy.

About Protean:

Incorporated in December 1995, Protean eGov Technologies Limited is engaged in the business of developing citizen-centric and population-scale e-governance solutions. Protean is an information technology-enabled solutions company conceptualizing, developing, and executing critical and population-scale greenfield technology solutions. The company collaborates with the Indian government and has extensive experience in creating digital public infrastructure and developing innovative citizen-centric e-governance solutions.

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