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 Group yielded new results—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 planning to actual implementation. 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; Andreas Moser, Member of the ZF Group Board of Management and Head of Commercial Vehicle Solutions and Industrial Technology Divisions; along with hundreds of guests from government, both shareholders, partners, and the media, gathered together to witness this milestone moment.

01 Adapting to Industry Transformation, Strategic Layout Bears Fruit

Currently, the automotive industry is undergoing unprecedented changes, with the waves of electrification and intelligence sweeping 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+ intelligent driving in commercial vehicles reaching 30%. At the same time, geopolitical competition is reshaping the global energy supply chain, and energy self-sufficiency has been elevated to a strategic core for nations, forcing the commercial vehicle industry to accelerate its transition from fuel-driven to electric-driven.

Based on a deep insight into industry trends, in April 2023, BAIC Foton and ZF signed a strategic agreement to introduce ZF's latest electric drive technology to China for the first time, with production based in Jiaxing. After three years of careful construction and preparation, the AxTrax 2 electric drive axle officially rolled off the production line at the joint venture plant, marking the transformation of this strategic blueprint into reality.

As an integrated electric drive axle platform developed by ZF for next-generation commercial vehicles, AxTrax 2 can be applied to medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, using modular design to replace the engine, transmission, driveshaft, differential, and conventional axles, achieving the electrification of commercial vehicles. The product that rolled off the line this time is equipped with a silicon carbide inverter on a 930V platform, with a continuous output power of 210 kW and a peak torque of 26,000 N·m, featuring a 3-speed transmission and electronic shift actuator. While its compact design maximizes battery packaging space, it achieves 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 Jiaxing Base Continuously Empowers, Joint Venture Reaches New Heights

Since BAIC Foton and ZF established their joint venture in Jiaxing in 2017, cooperation between the two parties has continued to deepen. 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 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 is a key step in extending cooperation from the traditional transmission field to the electric drive field.

In his speech, Lu Zhenghua expressed heartfelt thanks to the Jiaxing Municipal Party Committee, Municipal Government, the Economic 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 difficulties. He stated that the roll-off of the new product is only the first step of a long journey, and put forward three expectations for the future development of the joint venture:

First, continue to lead in technology, fully leveraging ZF's global technology advantages and BAIC Foton's vehicle application scenario advantages, to accelerate the efficient conversion of the electric drive axle from technology reserves to commercial delivery;

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

Third, advance localization and cost reduction and efficiency improvement, relying on the resilience and scale advantages of the domestic industrial chain, to accelerate component localization, so that globally-qualified 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", Supporting Green Transformation of Commercial Vehicles

Standing at the key node of the opening year of the "15th Five-Year Plan," the mass-production roll-off 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, and comprehensive intelligence." Facing the industry trend of deep integration of electrification and intelligence and the restructuring of the global landscape, BAIC Foton is taking key technologies as a lever to build vertical integration synergy advantages 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 and tap into efficiency potential through lean management, promoting new-energy commercial vehicles to accelerate toward a new stage of market-driven development.