BAIC Foton and ZF Strategic Partnership Bears New Fruit: First AxTrax 2 Electric Drive Axle Rolls Off the Line in Jiaxing
Guests who attended the ceremony included Zhang Lan, Secretary of the Party Working Committee and Director of the Management Committee of 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 of ZF Foton; and Andreas Moser, Member of the ZF Group Board of Directors and Head of the Commercial Vehicle Solutions and Industrial Technology divisions, together with several hundred guests from government, both shareholder parties, partners and the media, who jointly witnessed this landmark moment.
01 · Aligning with Industrial Transformation — A Strategic Layout Comes to Fruition
The automotive industry is today undergoing changes unseen in a century, as the waves of electrification and intelligentization sweep across the globe. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026–2030), China's domestic 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 adoption in commercial vehicles reaching 30%. At the same time, geopolitical competition is reshaping the global energy supply chain, and energy self-reliance has been elevated to a strategic priority for nations worldwide — compelling the commercial vehicle industry to accelerate its transition from fuel-driven to electric-driven powertrains.
It was precisely this deep reading of 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 its 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 developed 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, propeller shaft, differential and conventional axle to electrify commercial vehicles. The unit that rolled off the line is equipped with a silicon-carbide (SiC) inverter operating on a voltage platform of up to 930 V, delivering 210 kW of continuous output power and 26,000 N·m of peak torque, paired with a 3-speed transmission and an electronic shift actuator. Its compact architecture 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 · The Jiaxing Base Keeps Empowering — Joint Venture Cooperation Reaches a New Level
Since BAIC Foton and ZF established their joint-venture company in Jiaxing in 2017, cooperation between the two sides has continuously deepened. To date, the BAIC Foton–ZF transmission joint-venture plant has achieved cumulative sales of RMB 20 billion. With its advanced production systems and intelligent equipment, the Jiaxing base is becoming one of ZF's key manufacturing, R&D and functional headquarters sites in the Asia-Pacific region. The official roll-off of the AxTrax 2 electric drive axle marks a decisive step in extending the partnership from conventional transmissions into the electric drivetrain domain.
In his address, Lu Zhenghua expressed heartfelt gratitude to the Jiaxing Municipal Party Committee, the municipal government, the Economic and Technological Development Zone and relevant departments for their long-standing care for 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 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 company's future development:
First, sustained technological leadership. Fully leverage ZF's global technology strengths and BAIC Foton's advantages in complete-vehicle application scenarios, and accelerate the efficient conversion of the electric drive axle from a technology reserve into delivered products.
Second, deepened customer value. Focus closely on core scenarios such as trunk-line logistics and regional transportation, and speed up the value conversion from "roll-off and delivery" to "customer profitability."
Third, localization and cost and efficiency optimization. Rely on the resilience of China's domestic industrial chain and its economies of scale to accelerate component localization, so that electric drive axles of world-class quality benefit customers at a better price-performance ratio — helping new-energy commercial vehicles accelerate their shift from "policy-driven" to "market-driven" growth.
03 · Anchored in the 15th Five-Year Plan — Supporting the Green Transition of Commercial Vehicles
Standing at the critical starting point of the first year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, the mass-production roll-off of the AxTrax 2 electric drive axle is yet another important achievement in BAIC Foton's pursuit of its three major strategies: full internationalization, full new-energy transition and full intelligentization. Facing an industry trend 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 backing 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, market-driven stage of development.
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