BAIC Foton and ZF Strategic Partnership Bears New Fruit as First AxTrax 2 Electric Drive Axle Rolls Off the Line in Jiaxing

On June 22, the strategic partnership between BAIC Foton and ZF Group bore new fruit — the first AxTrax 2 electric drive axle from the two companies' joint venture plant was officially rolled off the production line in Jiaxing, marking a key leap from vision to reality and signaling that BAIC Foton has secured a critical voice in core new-energy components for commercial vehicles. Zhuang 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, 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 of ZF-Foton; Andreas Moser, Member of the Board of Management of ZF Group and Head of Commercial Vehicle Solutions and Industrial Technology; together with several hundred guests from government, both shareholder companies, partners and the media, gathered to witness this milestone moment.

01 Adapting to Industrial Transformation: Strategic Positioning Yields Results

Today, the automotive industry is undergoing changes unseen in a century, as the waves of electrification and intelligentization sweep the globe. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China's domestic commercial vehicle market is expected to stabilize at around 3.2 million units, with new-energy penetration forecast to reach 50% by 2030 and L2+ level intelligent driving adoption in commercial vehicles reaching 30%. At the same time, geopolitical competition is reshaping the global energy supply chain; energy independence and controllability have risen to the strategic core of national agendas, pushing the commercial vehicle industry to accelerate its transition from fuel-driven to electric-driven powertrains.

It was precisely this deep insight into industry trends that led BAIC Foton and ZF to sign 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 now officially rolled off the line at the joint venture plant, turning that strategic blueprint into reality.

As ZF's integrated electric drive axle platform engineered for the next generation of commercial vehicles, AxTrax 2 can be applied to both medium- and heavy-duty trucks. Its modular design replaces the engine, transmission, driveshaft, differential and conventional axle, enabling the electrification of commercial vehicles. The product unveiled in Jiaxing is equipped with a silicon carbide inverter operating on a platform of up to 930V, delivering 210 kW of continuous output power and 26,000 N·m of peak torque. Fitted with a three-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, intelligent system-level solution for the electrification of commercial vehicles.

02 The Jiaxing Base Keeps Empowering: Joint Venture Cooperation 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 generated cumulative sales of RMB 20 billion. With its advanced production systems and intelligent equipment, the Jiaxing base is becoming one of ZF's most important manufacturing, R&D and functional headquarters sites in the Asia-Pacific region. The official roll-off of the AxTrax 2 electric drive axle is a decisive 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 and Municipal 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 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 march, and put forward three expectations for the future development of the joint venture:

First, sustain technology leadership by fully leveraging ZF's global technology strengths and BAIC Foton's vehicle-level application scenario advantages, accelerating the efficient conversion of electric drive axle know-how from technology reserve into commercial delivery;

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

Third, advance localization and cost efficiency by relying on the resilience and scale advantages of the domestic industrial chain, speeding up component localization so that electric drive axles of global quality benefit customers at a better price-performance ratio — helping new-energy commercial vehicles accelerate their shift from "policy-driven" to "market-driven".

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

Standing at the critical juncture of the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, the series production roll-off of the AxTrax 2 electric drive axle is another important achievement in BAIC Foton's pursuit of its three strategies of "full internationalization, full new-energy transition and full intelligentization". Facing industry trends in which electrification and intelligentization are deeply converging and the global competitive landscape is being restructured, BAIC Foton is using key technologies as its lever to build a vertically integrated synergy advantage 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 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.