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 (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 that BAIC Foton has gained a key voice in the field of new-energy core components for commercial vehicles and achieved a critical leap from strategic layout to real-world implementation.

Zhang Lan, Secretary of the Working Committee and Director of the Management Committee of the 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 Board of Management of ZF Group and Head of the Commercial Vehicle Solutions and Industrial Technology divisions, together with hundreds of guests from government, both shareholder sides, partners and the media, gathered to jointly witness this milestone moment.

01 Aligning with Industrial Transformation: Strategic Layout Bears Fruit

Today, the automotive industry is undergoing changes unseen in a century, as the waves of electrification and intelligence sweep across 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 L2+ intelligent driving in commercial vehicles to reach 30%. At the same time, geopolitical competition is reshaping the global energy supply chain, and energy autonomy has become a strategic priority for nations, pushing the commercial vehicle industry to accelerate its shift from fuel-driven to electric-driven power.

Based on this deep insight into 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 located 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, marking that this strategic layout has turned from blueprint into reality.

As ZF's integrated electric drive axle platform designed 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, driveshaft, differential and conventional axles 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 210 kW of continuous output power and 26,000 N·m of peak torque, and fitted with a 3-speed transmission and electronic gear-shifting actuator. 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 of commercial vehicles.

02 The Jiaxing Base Continues to Empower: Joint Venture Reaches a New Level

Since BAIC Foton and ZF established their joint venture in Jiaxing in 2017, the cooperation between the two sides has continued to deepen. 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 rollout of the AxTrax 2 electric drive axle is a key step in extending the two sides' cooperation from conventional transmissions into the electric drive domain.

In his address, Lu Zhenghua expressed heartfelt thanks to the Jiaxing Municipal Party Committee, the municipal government, the Economic and Technological Development Zone and relevant departments for their long-standing care and support for the development 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 noted 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, sustain technological leadership — fully leverage ZF's global technology strengths and BAIC Foton's vehicle-scenario advantages to accelerate the efficient conversion of the electric drive axle from technology reserve to commercial delivery.

Second, deepen customer value — focus on core scenarios such as trunk-line logistics and regional transportation to accelerate the value conversion of products from "delivery off the line" to "customer profitability."

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

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

Standing at the key juncture of the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, the mass-production rollout 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 transformation 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 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. 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 to accelerate into a new stage of market-driven growth.