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 Friedrichshafen produced another milestone: 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 critical voice in the core component segment of new-energy commercial vehicles and achieved a decisive leap from strategic layout to real-world execution.

Zhang Lan, Secretary of the Party Working Committee of the Jiaxing Economic and Technological Development Zone and Director of its Management Committee; Chang Rui, Deputy Party Secretary and General Manager of BAIC Group and Chairman of BAIC Foton; Lu Zhenghua, Party Secretary and General Manager of BAIC Foton; Cui Shipeng, Deputy General Manager of BAIC Foton and Chairman ofZF-Foton; Andreas Moser, Member of the ZF Group Board of Directors and Head of Commercial Vehicle Solutions and Industrial Technology; together with several hundred guests from government, both shareholder sides, partners and the media, attended to witness the milestone moment.

01 Aligning with Industry Transformation: Strategic Layout Delivers Results

The automotive industry is undergoing a once-in-a-century transformation, as the waves of electrification and intelligentization sweep 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 the new-energy penetration rate forecast 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 risen to the core of national strategies, pushing the commercial vehicle industry to accelerate its shift from fuel-driven to electric-driven powertrains.

Grounded in a deep reading of these 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 based in Jiaxing. After three years of careful construction and preparation, the AxTrax 2 electric drive axle has officially entered production at the joint venture plant, turning that strategic blueprint into reality.

As ZF's integrated electric drive axle platform developed for the next generation of commercial vehicles, AxTrax 2 can be applied to medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. Its modular design replaces the engine, transmission, propeller shaft, differential and conventional axle, enabling the electrification of commercial vehicles. The unit that rolled off the line is equipped with a silicon carbide inverter on a platform rated up to 930 volts, delivering 210 kW of continuous output power and 26,000 N·m of peak torque. It pairs a 3-speed transmission with an electronic gear-shift actuator; its compact design maximizes available space for battery packaging while achieving full synchronization with the vehicle's braking, ADAS and autonomous driving systems—providing an efficient, intelligent system solution for the electrification transition of commercial vehicles.

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

Since BAIC Foton and ZF established their joint venture in Jiaxing in 2017, cooperation between the two sides has deepened continuously. To date, the BAIC Foton–ZF transmission 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 launch of AxTrax 2 electric drive axle production marks a key step in extending the partnership from conventional transmissions into the electric drive domain.

In his address, Lu Zhenghua expressed heartfelt thanks to the Jiaxing Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government, the Development Zone and relevant departments for their long-standing care and support for 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 difficulties. He noted that the launch of the new product is only the first step of a long journey, and put forward three expectations for the joint venture's future development:

First, sustain technological leadership. Fully leverage ZF's global technology strengths and BAIC Foton's vehicle-level and use-case advantages to accelerate the efficient conversion of the electric drive axle from technology reserve to commercial delivery.

Second, deepen customer value. Keep a close focus on core scenarios such as trunk-line logistics and regional transport, and speed up the value conversion from "delivery off the line" to "customer profitability."

Third, advance localization, cost reduction and efficiency gains. Rely on the resilience and scale advantages of China's domestic industrial chain to accelerate component localization, so that electric drive axles of global quality can benefit customers with better cost performance—helping new-energy commercial vehicles accelerate their shift from "policy-driven" to "market-driven."

03 Anchoring the 15th Five-Year Plan: Supporting the Green Transition of Commercial Vehicles

Standing at a critical node in the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, 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 transition and full intelligentization. Facing industry trends in which electrification and intelligentization are deeply integrated and the global competitive landscape is being restructured, BAIC Foton is using key technologies as its lever to build a vertically integrated synergy advantage across core components such as batteries, electric drives and electronic controls.

The official start of AxTrax 2 production 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 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 faster into a new, market-driven stage of development.