BAIC Foton and ZF Strategic Cooperation Bears New Fruit: First AxTrax 2 Electric Drive Axle Rolls Off the Line

On June 22, the strategic cooperation 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 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 layout to 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 Secretary of the Party Committee and General Manager of BAIC Group, Chairman of BAIC Foton; Lu Zhenghua, Secretary of the Party Committee 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 the Commercial Vehicle Solutions and Industrial Technology Divisions, along with hundreds of guests from government, both shareholder parties, partners, and media, gathered together to witness this milestone moment.

01 Aligning with Industry Transformation, Strategic Layout Bears Fruit

Currently, the automotive industry is experiencing once-in-a-century transformations, 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 remain stable at around 3.2 million units, with the new energy penetration rate forecast 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 independence has been elevated to a strategic priority for nations, pushing the commercial vehicle industry to accelerate its transition from fuel-driven to electric-driven powertrains.

Based on a deep insight into these 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 was officially rolled off the line at the joint venture plant, marking the transformation of this strategic layout from blueprint to 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, drive shaft, differential and conventional axle, thereby achieving the electrification of commercial vehicles. The product rolled off the line this time is equipped with a silicon carbide (SiC) inverter on a platform of up to 930V, delivering a continuous output power of 210 kilowatts and a peak torque of 26,000 N·m, and featuring a 3-speed transmission with an electronic shift actuator. While the compact design maximizes battery placement space, it fully synchronizes with vehicle braking, ADAS, and autonomous driving systems, providing an efficient and intelligent system solution for the electrification transformation of commercial vehicles.

02 Jiaxing Base Continuously Empowers, Joint Venture Cooperation Reaches New Heights

Since BAIC Foton and ZF established a joint venture in Jiaxing in 2017, cooperation between the two parties has continuously deepened. 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 site for ZF in the Asia-Pacific region. The official roll-off of the AxTrax 2 electric drive axle is a key step in extending the cooperation from the traditional transmission field into the electric drive domain.

In his address, Lu Zhenghua expressed heartfelt gratitude to the Jiaxing Municipal Party Committee, the Municipal Government, the Economic Development Zone, and relevant departments for their long-standing care 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 difficulties. He stated that the roll-off of the 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, continue to lead in technology, fully leveraging ZF's global technology advantages and BAIC Foton's vehicle-scenario advantages to accelerate the efficient transformation of electric drive axles from technology reserves to commercial delivery;

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

Third, promote localization and cost reduction with efficiency improvement, relying on the resilience and scale advantages of the domestic industrial chain to accelerate the localization of components, so that electric drive axles of global quality can benefit customers with better cost performance, helping new energy commercial vehicles accelerate from "policy-driven" to "market-driven".

03 Anchoring the "15th Five-Year Plan," Supporting the Green Transformation of Commercial Vehicles

Standing at the key starting point 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's three major strategies of "comprehensive internationalization, comprehensive new energy, and comprehensive intelligence." Facing the industry trend of deep integration between electrification and intelligence and the restructuring of the global landscape, BAIC Foton is using key technologies as levers 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 development 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 unlock efficiency potential through lean management, pushing new energy commercial vehicles to accelerate toward a new stage of market-driven development.