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 new fruit — the first AxTrax 2 electric drive axle rolled off the line at the two companies' joint venture plant in Jiaxing, marking a key leap from layout to implementation and signaling that BAIC Foton has gained a critical voice in the field of new energy core components for commercial vehicles. 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 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 ofZF Foton; Andreas Moser, Member of the Board of Management of ZF Group 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 Aligning with Industry Transformation, Strategic Layout Bears Fruit

Today, the automotive industry is undergoing once-in-a-century changes, with the waves of 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 forecast to reach 50% by 2030 and L2+ level intelligent driving penetration to reach 30%. Meanwhile, geopolitical competition is reshaping the global energy supply chain, and energy independence has risen to the core of national strategies, 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 has officially rolled off the line at the joint venture plant, turning this strategic blueprint into reality.

As an integrated electric drive axle platform developed by ZF for the next generation of commercial vehicles, the AxTrax 2 can be applied to medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, replacing the engine, transmission, drive shaft, differential and conventional axle with a modular design to achieve commercial vehicle electrification. The product that 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 kW and a peak torque of 26,000 N·m. Fitted with a 3-speed transmission and electronic shift actuator, its compact design maximizes available battery packaging space while fully synchronizing with the vehicle's braking, ADAS and autonomous driving systems, providing an efficient and intelligent system solution for the electrification transformation of commercial vehicles.

02Jiaxing Base Continues to Empower, Joint Venture Cooperation Reaches New Heights

Since BAIC Foton and ZF established their joint venture in Jiaxing in 2017, cooperation between the two sides has been 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 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 represents a key step in extending the cooperation between the two sides from the traditional transmission field into the electric drive domain.

In his address, 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 march, and put forward three expectations for the future development of the joint venture:

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

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

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

03 Anchored on the 15th Five-Year Plan, Empowering the Green Transformation 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 important achievement in BAIC Foton's advancement of its three major strategies of "full internationalization, full new energy transition, and full intelligentization". Facing industry trends of deep integration of electrification and intelligentization and the restructuring of the global landscape, BAIC Foton is using key technologies as a lever to build vertical integration synergies in core components such as batteries, electric drives and electronic controls.

The official launch 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 tap efficiency potential through lean management, pushing new energy commercial vehicles to accelerate toward a new stage of market-driven development.