Following the ZF establishment of two joint ventures with Chinese commercial vehicle manufacturer Foton in 2016, to produce commercial vehicle transmissions, the pair have now opened a second factory in Jiaxing, south of Shanghai.
It will focus on automated transmissions for heavy and light commercial vehicles.
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The joint venture, known as ZF Foton HCV Automated Transmissions (Jiaxing), in which ZF holds a 51% share, is focused on heavy commercial vehicles and makes ZF's automatic commercial vehicle transmission system TraXon for China. The system will be used on Foton's commercial vehicles.
"In China, the demand for automated transmission systems for light and heavy commercial vehicles is growing strongly," said ZF CEO Wolf-Henning Scheider.
"We will produce our latest transmission technology in China and thus offer our local customers more efficiency, comfort and safety."
Compared to manual transmissions, the TraXon transmission reduces fleet average fuel consumption by up to 5% the supplier claims.
Heyi Xu, CEO of Foton parent company BAIC Group, said: "Both parties will leverage on their respective technology and strengths, form a modular and standard production platform, in order to produce cutting-edge, efficient and intelligent transmission products for the world. We will provide Chinese customers of commercial vehicles the desired world-class products, leading the development of the sector."
The factory has begun production of a 12-speed transmission and capacity will be expanded as demand grows.
With efficiency factor of 99.7%, ZF claims the TraXon is the most efficient commercial vehicle transmission on sale and can be combined with additional functions such as predictive gearshift system PreVision GPS. Improved use of the rolling function can further increase efficiency. Off-road and rock-free functions can improve winter performance or be used for special vehicle applications.
The JV will also offer TraXon with the Intarder transmission brake. Production of that will soon begin in Jiaxing.
A second joint venture, Foton ZF LCV Automated Transmissions (Jiaxing), in which ZF holds a 40% share, produces transmissions for light commercial vehicles.
