BAIC Foton and ZF Strategic Partnership Bears New Fruit: First AxTrax 2 Electric Drive Axle Rolls Off the Production Line

On June 22, the strategic partnership between BAIC Foton and ZF achieved another milestone: the first AxTrax 2 electric drive axle rolled off the production line at the two companies' joint venture plant in Jiaxing. The event marks a key leap from layout to implementation, signaling that BAIC Foton has secured an important voice in the field of core new-energy components for commercial vehicles.

Zhang Lan, Secretary of the Party Working Committee and Director of the Management Committee of the Jiaxing Economic and Technological Development Zone; Chang Rui, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and General Manager of BAIC Group and Chairman of BAIC Foton; Lu Zhenghua, Secretary of the Party Committee and General Manager of BAIC Foton; Cui Shipeng, Deputy General Manager of BAIC Foton and Chairman of ZF Foton; Andreas Moser, Member of the ZF Group Board of Management and Head of the Commercial Vehicle Solutions and Industrial Technology divisions; and hundreds of guests from government, both shareholder parties, partners and the media gathered to witness this landmark moment.

01. Responding to Industry Transformation: Strategic Layout Bears Fruit

Today the automotive industry is undergoing changes unseen in a century, with the waves of electrification and intelligence sweeping the globe. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the domestic commercial vehicle market is expected to stabilize at around 3.2 million units, with the penetration rate of new-energy vehicles projected to reach 50% by 2030 and L2+ intelligent driving reaching 30%. At the same time, geopolitical competition is reshaping the global energy supply chain, and energy independence has risen to the strategic core of nations, pushing the commercial vehicle industry to accelerate its transition from fuel-driven to electric-driven powertrains.

Based on this profound insight into industry trends, BAIC Foton and ZF signed a strategic agreement in April 2023 to introduce ZF's latest electric drive technology to China for the first time, with production located in Jiaxing. After three years of careful construction and preparation, the AxTrax 2 electric drive axle has officially rolled off the line at the joint venture plant, turning this strategic blueprint into reality.

As ZF's integrated electric drive axle platform built for next-generation commercial vehicles, the AxTrax 2 can be applied to medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, using a modular design to replace the engine, transmission, drive shaft, differential and conventional axle, thereby achieving the electrification of commercial vehicles. The product rolled off the line this time is equipped with a silicon carbide inverter on a platform of up to 930V, delivering 210 kW of continuous output power and 26,000 N·m of peak torque. Fitted with a 3-speed transmission and electronic gear-shifting actuator, its compact design maximizes available space for battery placement while fully synchronizing with the vehicle's braking, ADAS and autonomous driving systems, providing an efficient and intelligent system solution for the electrification of commercial vehicles.

02. The Jiaxing Base Keeps Empowering: Joint Venture Reaches a New Level

Since BAIC Foton and ZF established their joint venture in Jiaxing in 2017, cooperation between the two sides has continuously deepened. To date, the BAIC Foton–ZF gearbox joint venture plant has achieved cumulative sales of RMB 20 billion. With advanced production systems and intelligent equipment, the Jiaxing base is becoming an important manufacturing, R&D and functional headquarters for ZF in the Asia-Pacific region. The official roll-off of the AxTrax 2 electric drive axle is a key step in extending the partnership from the conventional gearbox field into electric drive.

In his address, Lu Zhenghua expressed heartfelt thanks to the Jiaxing Municipal Party Committee, municipal government, the Economic Development Zone and relevant departments for their long-standing care and support for the development of the BAIC Foton–ZF gearbox joint venture plant, and paid high tribute to the project team and all employees who worked day and night to overcome difficulties. He noted that the roll-off of the new product is only the first step of a long march, and put forward three expectations for the future development of the joint venture:

First, sustain technological leadership by fully leveraging ZF's global technology strengths and BAIC Foton's vehicle-application scenario advantages, and accelerate the efficient conversion of the electric drive axle from a technology reserve into commercial delivery;

Second, deepen customer value by focusing on core scenarios such as trunk-line logistics and regional transportation, and speed up the value conversion of the product from "roll-off and delivery" to "customer profitability";

Third, advance localization and cost reduction with efficiency gains, relying on the resilience and scale advantages of the domestic industrial chain to accelerate the localization of components, so that electric drive axles of global quality benefit customers with better cost-performance, and help new-energy commercial vehicles accelerate the shift from "policy-driven" to "market-driven."

03. Anchored on the "15th Five-Year Plan": Supporting the Green Transition of Commercial Vehicles

Standing at the critical starting point of the first year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, the mass-production roll-off of the AxTrax 2 electric drive axle is another important achievement in BAIC Foton's push of its three major strategies of "comprehensive internationalization, comprehensive new-energy transition and comprehensive intelligentization." Facing industry trends of deep integration between electrification and intelligence and the restructuring of the global landscape, BAIC Foton is using key technologies as a lever to build vertically integrated synergy advantages in core components such as batteries, electric drives and electronic controls.

The official production launch of the AxTrax 2 electric drive axle not only provides strong technical support for BAIC Foton's new-energy commercial vehicles, but also sets a benchmark for the localization of electric drive technology in China's commercial vehicle industry. Looking ahead, the BAIC Foton–ZF gearbox joint venture plant will continue to drive a cost revolution through technological innovation and unlock efficiency through lean management, pushing new-energy commercial vehicles to accelerate into a new stage of market-driven growth.