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 once again bore rich fruit — the first AxTrax 2 electric drive axle from their joint-venture plant officially rolled off the production line in Jiaxing, marking that BAIC Foton has secured a key voice in the core components sector of new-energy commercial vehicles and achieved a critical leap from strategic planning to concrete 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, 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; together with hundreds of guests from government, both shareholder parties, partners, and the media, gathered to jointly witness this milestone moment.

01 Responding to Industry Transformation: Strategic Positioning Bears Fruit

Today, the automotive industry is undergoing a once-in-a-century transformation, with the waves of electrification and intelligence sweeping across 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%. Meanwhile, geopolitical maneuvering is reshaping the global energy supply chain, and energy independence has been elevated to a strategic core for nations, compelling the commercial vehicle industry to accelerate its transition from fuel-driven to electric-driven powertrains.

Based 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 localized 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, signaling that this strategic blueprint has now become 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, enabling the electrification of commercial vehicles. The product rolled off this time is equipped with a silicon-carbide inverter on a 930V platform, delivering a continuous output power of 210 kW and a peak torque of 26,000 N·m. It features a 3-speed transmission with an electronic gear-shifting actuator, and its compact design maximizes battery packaging space while achieving full synchronization with the vehicle's braking, ADAS, and autonomous driving systems — providing an efficient and intelligent system solution for the electrification transformation of commercial vehicles.

02 Jiaxing Base Continues to Empower, Joint Venture Reaches New Heights

Since BAIC Foton and ZF established their joint venture in Jiaxing in 2017, cooperation between the two parties has been continuously deepened. To date, the BAIC Foton–ZF transmission joint-venture plant has accumulated total 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 represents a key step in extending the partnership from the traditional transmission field into the electric drive domain.

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 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 challenges. He stated that the launch of the new product is only the first step of a long march, and put forward three expectations for the future development of the joint venture:

First, continue to lead with technology by fully leveraging ZF's global technology strengths and BAIC Foton's complete-vehicle scenario advantages, accelerating 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 accelerating the value conversion of products from "roll-off delivery" to "customer profitability";

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

03 Anchoring the "15th Five-Year Plan" to Support the Green Transformation of Commercial Vehicles

Standing at the critical juncture of 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 in advancing its three major strategies of "Full Internationalization, Full New-Energyization, and Full Intelligentization." 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 lever to build a vertically integrated synergy advantage in 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. In the future, the BAIC Foton–ZF transmission joint-venture plant will continue to drive a cost revolution through technological innovation, unlock efficiency potential through lean management, and push new-energy commercial vehicles toward a new stage of market-driven growth.