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

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

On June 22, the strategic partnership between BAIC Foton and ZF Group bore new fruit — the first AxTrax 2 electric drive axle rolled off the line at the two companies' joint venture plant in Jiaxing, marking a key leap from strategic positioning to tangible execution and signaling that BAIC Foton has secured a critical voice in the core-component arena of new-energy commercial vehicles. Zhang Lan, Secretary of the Party Working Committee and Director of the Management Committee of 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 ofZF Foton; and Andreas Moser, Member of the Management Board of ZF Group and Head of the Commercial Vehicle Solutions and Industrial Technology Divisions, together with hundreds of guests from government, both shareholder sides, partners, and the media, gathered to witness this milestone moment.

01 | Riding the Wave of Industrial Transformation — Strategic Positioning Bears Fruit

Today, the automotive industry is undergoing once-in-a-century transformation, with electrification and intelligence sweeping the globe. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China's domestic commercial vehicle market is expected to stabilize around 3.2 million units, with the new-energy penetration rate projected to reach 50% by 2030 and L2+ intelligent driving penetration in commercial vehicles reaching 30%. At the same time, geopolitical competition is reshaping the global energy supply chain, elevating energy independence and controllability to a strategic priority for nations and compelling the commercial vehicle industry to accelerate its shift from fuel-driven to electric-drive architectures.

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

As an integrated e-axle platform developed by ZF for next-generation commercial vehicles, the AxTrax 2 is applicable to medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. Its modular design replaces the engine, transmission, drive shaft, differential, and conventional axle to achieve full commercial vehicle electrification. The product launched this time features 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, paired with a 3-speed transmission and electronic shift actuator. While its compact design maximizes available space for battery packaging, it fully synchronizes with the vehicle's braking, ADAS, and autonomous driving systems — providing an efficient and intelligent system-level solution for the electrification of commercial vehicles.

02 | Jiaxing Base Continues to Empower — Joint Venture Reaches New Heights

Since BAIC Foton and ZF established their joint venture in Jiaxing in 2017, the partnership between the two sides has continued to deepen. To date, the BAIC Foton–ZF gearbox joint venture plant has accumulated RMB 20 billion in sales, and the Jiaxing base — with its advanced production systems and intelligent equipment — is becoming a key manufacturing, R&D, and functional headquarters for ZF in the Asia-Pacific region. The official rollout of the AxTrax 2 electric drive axle represents a critical step in extending the two companies' cooperation from traditional transmissions into the e-drive domain.

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

First, sustain technological leadership by fully leveraging ZF's global technology advantages and BAIC Foton's vehicle-level application scenarios, accelerating the efficient conversion of e-axle technology from reserves into commercial deliveries;

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

Third, advance localization and cost reduction with efficiency gains, drawing on the resilience and scale advantages of China's domestic supply chain to speed up component localization, deliver global-quality e-axles to customers at even better value, and help new-energy commercial vehicles accelerate the shift from "policy-driven" to "market-driven."

03 | Anchored on the 15th Five-Year Plan — Powering the Green Transition of Commercial Vehicles

Standing at the critical juncture of the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, the mass-production rollout of the AxTrax 2 electric drive axle is yet another important outcome of BAIC Foton's push of its three major strategies: full internationalization, full new-energy transformation, and full 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 levers to build vertically integrated synergies across core components including batteries, e-drives, and electronic controls.

The official launch of production for 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 e-drive technology across China's commercial vehicle industry. Looking ahead, the BAIC Foton–ZF gearbox joint venture plant will continue to drive cost transformation through technological innovation and unlock efficiency through lean management, pushing new-energy commercial vehicles to accelerate into a new, market-driven phase.

Source: BAIC Foton Official Newsroom