BAIC Foton and ZF Strategic Partnership Yields 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 milestone — the first AxTrax 2 electric drive axle rolled off the production line at the two companies' joint venture plant in Jiaxing, signaling that BAIC Foton has secured a key voice in the field of new-energy core components for commercial vehicles and completed the critical leap from strategic planning to on-the-ground execution. 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 Secretary of the Party Committee, 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 Directors and Head of the Commercial Vehicle Solutions and Industrial Technology Divisions; along with hundreds of guests from government, both shareholder parties, partners and the media, gathered together to witness this landmark moment.

01 Aligning with Industry Transformation — Strategic Layout Bears Fruit

Today, the automotive industry is experiencing a once-in-a-century transformation, with electrification and intelligentization 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 penetration in commercial vehicles reaching 30%. At the same time, geopolitical competition is reshaping the global energy supply chain, and energy self-sufficiency has become a strategic priority for nations, compelling the commercial vehicle industry to accelerate its transition from fuel-driven to electric-driven powertrains.

Based on a profound understanding of these industry trends, BAIC Foton and ZF signed a strategic agreement in April 2023, bringing ZF's latest electric drive technology into 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 officially rolled off the line at the joint venture plant, turning this strategic 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 architecture replaces the engine, transmission, drive shaft, differential and conventional axle to achieve full electrification of commercial vehicles. The product rolled off today features 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. Equipped with a 3-speed transmission and electronic shift actuator, its compact design maximizes available space for battery packaging while fully synchronizing with the vehicle's braking, ADAS and autonomous driving systems — providing an efficient, intelligent system-level solution for the electrification transition of commercial vehicles.

02 Jiaxing Base Continues to Empower — Joint Venture Reaches New Heights

Since BAIC Foton and ZF established their joint venture in Jiaxing in 2017, cooperation between the two sides has continued to deepen. To date, the BAIC Foton–ZF transmission joint venture plant has achieved cumulative sales of 20 billion yuan. 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 marks a key step in extending the partnership from traditional transmissions into the field of electric drive systems.

In his address, Lu Zhenghua expressed heartfelt thanks to the Jiaxing Municipal Party Committee, the municipal government, the Economic Development Zone and relevant departments for their longstanding 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 challenges. He noted 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 with technology — fully leverage ZF's global technology strengths and BAIC Foton's vehicle-level scenario advantages, and accelerate the efficient conversion of the electric drive axle from technology reserves into commercial deliveries;

Second, deepen customer value — focus closely on core scenarios such as trunk logistics and regional transport, and accelerate the value conversion of the product from "roll-off and delivery" to "customer profitability";

Third, advance localization and cost reduction — rely on the resilience and scale advantages of the domestic industrial chain to accelerate the localization of components, so that globally-quality electric drive axles can benefit customers with a better price-performance ratio, and help new-energy commercial vehicles accelerate their shift from "policy-driven" to "market-driven."

03 Anchoring the 15th Five-Year Plan — Supporting the Green Transition of Commercial Vehicles

Standing at the critical starting point of the 15th Five-Year Plan, the mass-production roll-off of the AxTrax 2 electric drive axle is yet another important achievement of BAIC Foton's "Three Fulls" strategy — full internationalization, full new-energy transition, and full intelligentization. Facing an industry trend of deep integration between electrification and intelligentization and a restructuring of the global landscape, 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, unlock efficiency gains through lean management, and push new-energy commercial vehicles toward a new stage of market-driven growth.