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

On June 22, the strategic partnership between BAIC Foton and ZF achieved another milestone — the first AxTrax 2 electric drive axle produced at the two companies' joint venture plant officially rolled off the line in Jiaxing. The event marks BAIC Foton's acquisition of a key voice in the field of new energy core components for commercial vehicles, completing a critical leap from strategic planning 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 and 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 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 parties, partners, and media, gathered to witness this milestone moment.

01. Adapting to Industry Transformation — Strategic Layout Bears Fruit

Today, the automotive industry is undergoing changes unseen in a century, with the waves of electrification and intelligentization sweeping 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 in commercial vehicles reaching 30%. Meanwhile, geopolitical competition is reshaping the global energy supply chain, with energy independence and controllability rising to the core of national strategies, forcing the commercial vehicle industry to accelerate its transition from fuel-driven to electric-driven powertrains.

Built 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 localized in Jiaxing. After three years of careful construction and preparation, the AxTrax 2 electric drive axle 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, the AxTrax 2 can be applied to medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. Its modular design replaces the engine, transmission, drive shaft, differential, and conventional axle to enable full electrification of commercial vehicles. The product rolled off the line this time is equipped with a silicon carbide inverter on a 930V platform, delivering a continuous output power of 210 kW and a peak torque of 26,000 N·m. It features a 3-speed transmission and an electronic shift actuator. Its compact design maximizes battery packaging space while achieving full synchronization with the vehicle's braking, ADAS, and autonomous driving systems — providing an efficient and intelligent system solution for the electrification transformation 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 parties has continuously deepened. To date, the BAIC Foton and ZF transmission joint venture plant has achieved cumulative sales of 20 billion RMB. With 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 parties 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 of the BAIC Foton–ZF transmission joint venture plant, and paid 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 march, and put forward three expectations for the future development of the joint venture:

First, sustain technological leadership by fully leveraging ZF's global technology advantages and BAIC Foton's vehicle scenario strengths, accelerating the efficient conversion of electric drive axles from technology reserves into commercial deliveries;

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 delivery" to "customer profitability";

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

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

At the critical juncture of the opening year 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 in advancing its three major strategies of "comprehensive internationalization, comprehensive new energy, and comprehensive intelligence." Facing the industry trend of deep integration between electrification and intelligentization and the restructuring of the global landscape, BAIC Foton is using key technologies as a foothold to build vertical integration synergy advantages across 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 vehicle lineup, but also sets a benchmark for the localized development of electric drive technology in China's commercial vehicle industry. Looking ahead, 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 into a new, market-driven phase of development.