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 Friedrichshafen bore new fruit — the first AxTrax 2 electric drive axle from the two companies' joint venture plant officially rolled off the production line in Jiaxing, marking a decisive leap from planning to execution and giving BAIC Foton a key voice in the core electrification components of 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 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 Management Board of ZF Group and head of the Commercial Vehicle Solutions and Industrial Technology divisions; together with several hundred guests from government, both shareholder parties, partners and the media, gathered to witness this milestone moment.

01 Riding the Wave of Industrial Transformation: Strategic Layout Delivers Results

Today the automotive industry is undergoing changes unseen in a century, as electrification and intelligence sweep the globe. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China's 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 the adoption of L2+ intelligent driving on commercial vehicles reaching 30%. At the same time, geopolitical competition is reshaping the global energy supply chain, and energy autonomy has risen to the core of national strategies, 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, introducing ZF's latest electric drive technology to China for the first time and localizing production 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 that strategic blueprint into reality.

As ZF's integrated electric drive axle platform developed for next-generation commercial vehicles, the AxTrax 2 can be applied to medium- and heavy-duty trucks, replacing the engine, transmission, propeller shaft, differential and conventional axle with a modular design to achieve commercial vehicle electrification. The unit that rolled off the line is equipped with a silicon-carbide inverter for platforms of up to 930 V, delivering 210 kW of continuous output and 26,000 N·m of peak torque, paired with a 3-speed transmission and an electronic shift actuator. Its compact design maximizes the space available for battery packaging 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 The Jiaxing Base Keeps Empowering: Cooperation Reaches a New Level

Since BAIC Foton and ZF established their joint venture in Jiaxing in 2017, the partnership has deepened continuously. The transmission joint venture plant has now achieved cumulative sales of RMB 20 billion, and with its advanced production systems and intelligent equipment, the Jiaxing base is becoming an important manufacturing, R&D and competence 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 two partners' cooperation from conventional transmissions into the electric drive domain.

In his address, Lu Zhenghua expressed heartfelt thanks to the Jiaxing municipal Party committee and government, the Economic and Technological 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 staff 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 march, and put forward three expectations for the joint venture's future development:

First, maintain technological leadership by fully leveraging ZF's global technology strengths and BAIC Foton's vehicle and application-scenario advantages, and accelerate the efficient conversion of the electric drive axle from technology reserve to 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 from "delivery off the line" to "customer profitability";

Third, advance localization and cost reduction with higher efficiency, relying on the resilience and scale advantages of the domestic industrial chain to accelerate component localization, so that an electric drive axle of global quality benefits customers at better value for money, and so that new-energy commercial vehicles accelerate their shift from "policy-driven" to "market-driven" growth.

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

At this key juncture — the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan — the mass-production launch of the AxTrax 2 electric drive axle is another important achievement of BAIC Foton's three major strategies of "full internationalization, full new-energy transition and full intelligentization." Facing industry trends in which electrification and intelligence deeply converge and the global landscape is restructured, BAIC Foton is using key technologies as its lever to build a vertically integrated synergy advantage in core components such as batteries, electric drives and electronic controls.

The official start of 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 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 faster into a new stage of market-driven development.