BAIC Foton and ZF Strategic Partnership Delivers New Milestone: First AxTrax 2 Electric Drive Axle Rolls Off the Line

On June 22, the strategic partnership between BAIC Foton and ZF delivered another tangible result: the first AxTrax 2 electric drive axle produced by the two companies' joint-venture plant officially rolled off the line in Jiaxing. The moment marks BAIC Foton's acquisition of a critical voice in core new-energy components for commercial vehicles, and a decisive leap from strategic positioning to on-the-ground industrial delivery. 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; and Andreas Moser, Member of the Board of Management of ZF Group and Head of the Commercial Vehicle Solutions and Industrial Technology divisions, joined several hundred guests from government, both shareholder sides, the partner community and the media to witness the milestone.

01 Riding the Wave of Industrial Transformation — Strategy Converted into Results

The automotive industry is undergoing a once-in-a-century transformation, as the electrification and intelligence waves sweep the globe. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026–2030), China's domestic commercial vehicle market is expected to stabilize at roughly 3.2 million units, with new-energy penetration forecast to reach 50% by 2030 and L2+ intelligent driving to account for 30% of the segment. At the same time, geopolitical competition is reshaping the global energy supply chain, and energy autonomy has been elevated to a core national priority in countries around the world — pushing the commercial vehicle industry to accelerate its transition from fuel-driven to electric-driven powertrains.

Built on a deep reading of 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 local production based in Jiaxing. After three years of careful construction and preparation, the AxTrax 2 electric drive axle has now officially entered series production at the joint-venture plant, turning that strategic blueprint into reality.

As an integrated electric drive axle platform developed by ZF for next-generation commercial vehicles, AxTrax 2 is applicable to medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. Its modular architecture replaces the engine, transmission, propeller shaft, differential and conventional axles to electrify commercial vehicles. The units that rolled off the line are equipped with a silicon-carbide inverter operating on a platform of up to 930 volts, delivering 210 kW of continuous output power and 26,000 N·m of peak torque, paired with a three-speed transmission and an electronic shift actuator. The compact design frees up maximum space for battery packaging while achieving full synchronization with the vehicle's braking, ADAS and automated driving systems — providing an efficient and intelligent system-level solution for the electrification 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 continuously. To date, the BAIC Foton–ZF transmission joint-venture plant has achieved RMB 20 billion in cumulative sales. With advanced production systems and intelligent equipment, the Jiaxing base is becoming one of ZF's key manufacturing, R&D and competence headquarters in the Asia-Pacific region. The official roll-off of the AxTrax 2 electric drive axle is a critical step in extending the partnership 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 formidable challenges. He noted that the roll-off of the new product is only the first step of a long march, and put forward three expectations for the joint venture's future:

First, sustain technology leadership by fully leveraging ZF's global technology strengths and BAIC Foton's vehicle-level application scenario advantages, and accelerate the efficient conversion of electric drive axle technology reserves into commercially delivered products.

Second, deepen customer value by focusing on core scenarios such as trunk-line logistics and regional transportation, and accelerate the value conversion from "delivery off the line" to "profitability for the customer."

Third, advance localization and cost reduction with efficiency gains, relying on the resilience and scale advantages of the domestic industrial chain to speed up component localization, so that electric drive axles of world-class quality benefit customers at a better price-performance ratio — helping new-energy commercial vehicles move from "policy-driven" to "market-driven" growth at a faster pace.

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

Standing at the pivotal opening year 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 pursuit of its three grand strategies: comprehensive internationalization, comprehensive new-energy transition and comprehensive intelligentization. Facing an industry trend in which electrification and intelligence are deeply converging and the global landscape is being restructured, BAIC Foton is using key technologies as its lever to build vertically integrated synergies across 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 across 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 into a new, market-driven stage of development.