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 new fruit — the first AxTrax 2 electric drive axle officially rolled off the line at the two companies' joint venture plant in Jiaxing, marking a key milestone in BAIC Foton's acquisition of critical influence in the core components of new energy commercial vehicles and achieving a vital leap from strategic layout to real-world implementation. 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; and Andreas Moser, Member of the ZF Group Board of Directors and Head of the Commercial Vehicle Solutions and Industrial Technology Divisions, together with hundreds of guests from government, both shareholders, partners and the media, gathered to witness this milestone moment.

01  Adapting to the Trend of Industrial Transformation, Strategic Layout Bears Fruit

Currently, 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 new energy penetration rate projected to reach 50% by 2030 and L2+ level intelligent driving for commercial vehicles to reach 30%. At the same time, geopolitical competition is reshaping the global energy supply chain, and energy autonomy has risen to the strategic core of nations, forcing the commercial vehicle industry to accelerate its transition from fuel-driven to electric-driven powertrains.

It is precisely based on a profound insight into these industry trends that in April 2023, BAIC Foton and ZF signed a strategic agreement 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 officially rolled off the line at the joint venture plant, marking the transformation of this strategic layout from blueprint into reality.

As an integrated electric drive axle platform developed by ZF for next-generation commercial vehicles, the AxTrax 2 can be applied to medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. Its modular design replaces the engine, transmission, drive shaft, differential and conventional axle, achieving the electrification of commercial vehicles. The product rolled off the line this time is equipped with a silicon carbide inverter on a maximum 930V platform, delivering continuous output power of 210 kilowatts and peak torque of 26,000 N·m. Featuring a 3-speed transmission and an electronic gear-shift actuator, it maximizes the release of battery layout space through its compact design while achieving full synchronization with the vehicle's braking, ADAS and autonomous driving systems, providing an efficient and intelligent system solution for the electrification of commercial vehicles.

02  Jiaxing Base Continuously Empowers, Joint Venture Cooperation Reaches a New Level

Since BAIC Foton and ZF established their joint venture in Jiaxing in 2017, the cooperation between the two parties has continued to deepen. To date, the BAIC Foton and ZF transmission joint venture plant has achieved cumulative sales of 20 billion yuan. With its 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 cooperation between the two parties from the traditional transmission field into the electric drive field.

In his address, Lu Zhenghua expressed heartfelt gratitude to the Jiaxing Municipal Party Committee, the Municipal Government, the Economic Development Zone and relevant departments for their long-standing care and support for the development of the BAIC Foton and 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 stated that the roll-off of the new product is only the first step of a long journey, and put forward three expectations for the future development of the joint venture:

First, to continuously lead in technology by fully leveraging ZF's global technological advantages and BAIC Foton's whole-vehicle scenario strengths, accelerating the efficient conversion of the electric drive axle from technology reserves to product delivery;

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

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

03  Anchoring the "15th Five-Year Plan", Boosting the Green Transformation of Commercial Vehicles

Standing at the key node of the opening year of the "15th Five-Year Plan," the mass production roll-off of the AxTrax 2 electric drive axle is another important achievement of BAIC Foton in advancing its three major strategies of "comprehensive internationalization, comprehensive new energy, and comprehensive intelligence." Facing the industry trend of deep integration between electrification and intelligence and the restructuring of the global landscape, BAIC Foton is using key technologies as a grip to build a vertical integration synergy advantage in core components such as batteries, electric drives and electronic controls.

The official production 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 localized development of electric drive technology in China's commercial vehicle industry. In the future, the BAIC Foton and ZF transmission joint venture plant will continue to drive a cost revolution through technological innovation, unlock efficiency potential through lean management, and promote new energy commercial vehicles to accelerate toward a new stage of market-driven development.