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 bore fresh fruit — the first AxTrax 2 electric drive axle from the two companies' joint venture plant officially rolled off the production line in Jiaxing, signaling that BAIC Foton has secured a key voice in the core new-energy components segment for commercial vehicles and achieved a critical leap from strategic layout to real-world execution. 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 of ZF Foton; Andreas Moser, Member of the ZF Group Board of Management and Head of the Commercial Vehicle Solutions and Industrial Technology divisions; along with hundreds of guests from government, both shareholder parties, partners and the media, gathered together to witness this milestone moment.

01 Following the Wave of Industrial Transformation — Strategic Layout Bears Fruit

Today the automotive industry is undergoing a once-in-a-century transformation, with electrification and intelligentization sweeping the globe. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China's domestic commercial vehicle market is expected to stabilize at around 3.2 million units, with new-energy penetration projected to reach 50% by 2030 and L2+ intelligent driving adoption in commercial vehicles reaching 30%. At the same time, geopolitical competition is reshaping the global energy supply chain, and energy independence has been elevated to a core national strategy, compelling the commercial vehicle industry to accelerate its shift from fuel-driven to electric-driven powertrains.

Based on this deep 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 designed for next-generation commercial vehicles, the AxTrax 2 can be applied to medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, using modular design to replace the engine, transmission, driveshaft, differential and conventional axle to electrify commercial vehicles. The product launched this time features a silicon-carbide inverter on a platform of up to 930V, with continuous output power reaching 210 kW and peak torque reaching 26,000 N·m. Equipped with a 3-speed transmission and electronic shift actuator, its compact design maximizes available space for battery packaging while fully synchronizing with the vehicle's braking, ADAS and autonomous driving systems — providing an efficient, intelligent system-level 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 continued to deepen. To date, the BAIC Foton–ZF transmission joint venture plant has achieved cumulative sales of RMB 20 billion. Leveraging 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 traditional transmissions into the electric drive domain.

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

First, continue to lead with technology — fully leveraging ZF's global technology strengths and BAIC Foton's complete-vehicle scenario advantages to accelerate the efficient conversion of the electric drive axle from technology reserves into commercial delivery;

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

Third, advance localization and cost reduction — relying on the resilience and scale advantages of the domestic industrial chain to accelerate component localization, so that world-class electric drive axles benefit customers with better cost-performance, helping new-energy commercial vehicles accelerate their shift from "policy-driven" to "market-driven."

03 Anchored on the "15th Five-Year Plan" — Supporting the Green Transformation of Commercial Vehicles

Standing at the key starting point of the first year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, the mass-production launch of the AxTrax 2 electric drive axle is another important achievement in 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 intelligentization and the restructuring of the global landscape, BAIC Foton is using key technologies as a lever to build a vertically integrated collaborative advantage across 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. Going forward, the BAIC Foton–ZF transmission 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.