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 bore fresh fruit — the first AxTrax 2 electric drive axle from the two partners' joint venture plant officially rolled off the line in Jiaxing, signaling that BAIC Foton has secured a key voice in the core new energy components segment of commercial vehicles and completed the critical leap from strategic positioning to on-the-ground execution.

Zhang Lan, Secretary of the Party Working Committee and Director of the Administrative Committee of the Jiaxing Economic and Technological Development Zone; Chang Rui, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and General Manager of BAIC Group, and Chairman of BAIC Foton; Lu Zhenghua, Party Committee 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 the Commercial Vehicle Solutions and Industrial Technology Divisions, together with hundreds of guests from government, both shareholder sides, partners and the media, gathered to witness this milestone moment.

01 Riding the Wave of Industry 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 the new energy penetration rate forecast to reach 50% by 2030 and L2+ level intelligent driving reaching 30% for commercial vehicles. At the same time, geopolitical competition is reshaping the global energy supply chain, energy independence and controllability have been elevated to a strategic priority for nations, and the commercial vehicle industry is being pushed to accelerate its shift from fuel-driven to electric-driven powertrains.

It is precisely on the basis of a deep reading of these industry trends that, in April 2023, BAIC Foton and ZF signed a strategic agreement introducing ZF's latest electric drive technology to China for the first time, with production localized 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 an integrated electric drive axle platform that ZF has developed for next-generation commercial vehicles, AxTrax 2 can be applied to medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, using a modular design to replace the engine, transmission, propeller shaft, differential and conventional axle, thereby achieving the electrification of commercial vehicles. The unit rolled off the line this time is equipped with a silicon carbide (SiC) inverter on a platform of up to 930 volts, delivering continuous output power of 210 kW and peak torque of 26,000 N·m, and paired with a 3-speed transmission and electronic shift actuator. While its compact design maximizes the space released for battery packaging, it achieves 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 company in Jiaxing in 2017, cooperation between the two sides has deepened continuously. To date, the BAIC Foton–ZF transmission joint venture plant has accumulated sales revenue of RMB 20 billion, and 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 the partnership from conventional transmissions into the electric drive domain.

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 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 difficulties. Noting that the roll-off of a new product is only the first step of a long march, he put forward three expectations for the joint venture's future development:

First, sustained technology leadership — fully leveraging ZF's global technology advantages and BAIC Foton's vehicle application scenario strengths, and accelerating the efficient conversion of the electric drive axle from technology reserves into commercial deliveries;

Second, deepening customer value — keeping a close eye on core scenarios such as trunk-line logistics and regional transport, and accelerating the value conversion of products from "roll-off delivery" to "customer profitability";

Third, advancing localization, cost reduction and efficiency gains — drawing on the resilience and scale advantages of the domestic supply chain to accelerate component localization, so that electric drive axles of global quality benefit customers at better value for money, helping new energy commercial vehicles move faster from "policy-driven" to "market-driven".

03 Anchored on 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 another major outcome of BAIC Foton's push on its three strategies of "full internationalization, full new energy and full intelligentization." Facing an industry trend in which electrification and intelligentization are deeply converging and the global landscape is being restructured, BAIC Foton is taking key technologies as its lever to build vertical integration and synergy advantages across core components such as batteries, e-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 into a new, market-driven phase.