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 rolled off the line at the two companies' joint-venture plant in Jiaxing, signaling that BAIC Foton has gained a key voice in the field of core new-energy components for commercial vehicles and achieved a critical leap from strategic planning to actual implementation. 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 Secretary of the Party Committee, 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 Commercial Vehicle Solutions and Industrial Technology; along with hundreds of guests from government, both shareholders, partners and the media, gathered together to jointly witness this milestone moment.

01 Adapting to Industry Transformation — Strategic Planning Bears Fruit

The automotive industry is currently 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 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, pushing the commercial vehicle industry to accelerate its transition from fuel-driven to electric-driven power.

Built on a profound insight into 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 rolled off the line at the joint-venture plant, turning this strategic blueprint into reality.

As an integrated electric drive axle platform developed by ZF for next-generation commercial vehicles, AxTrax 2 can be applied to medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. Its modular design replaces the engine, transmission, drive shaft, differential and conventional axle to achieve the electrification of commercial vehicles. The product rolled off the line this time is equipped with a silicon-carbide inverter on a platform of up to 930V, delivering a continuous output of 210 kW and a peak torque of 26,000 N·m, paired with a 3-speed transmission and an electronic gear-shifting actuator. Its compact design maximizes available battery packaging space 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 Jiaxing Base Continues to Empower — 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 deepened steadily. To date, the BAIC Foton–ZF transmission joint-venture plant has achieved cumulative sales of 20 billion yuan. 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 roll-off of the AxTrax 2 electric drive axle is a key step in extending the two parties' cooperation from the traditional transmission field into the electric 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 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 roll-off of a new product is only the first step of a long journey, 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-scenario strengths, accelerating the efficient conversion of the electric drive axle from technology reserves to product delivery;

Second, deepen customer value by focusing on core scenarios such as trunk-line logistics and regional transport, speeding up the value conversion from "delivery off the line" to "customer profitability";

Third, advance localization and cost reduction with efficiency gains, relying on the resilience and scale advantages of the 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 move from "policy-driven" to "market-driven."

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

Standing at the pivotal starting point of the "15th Five-Year Plan," the mass-production roll-off of the AxTrax 2 electric drive axle is another important achievement in BAIC Foton's push of its three major strategies — "comprehensive internationalization, comprehensive new-energy transition and comprehensive 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 a lever to build a vertically integrated synergy advantage across core components such as batteries, electric drives and electronic controls.

The official launch 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 to accelerate into a new stage driven by the market.