Chinese e-truck maker Windrose plans US factory, will challenge Tesla on home turf

Electric truck company Windrose is planning to set up a US assembly plant for its semi-trucks in a move that would directly challenge Tesla, the Chinese company's founder and CEO Han Wen has said.

The proposed US plant, to be located in the southern state of Georgia, will piece together the vehicle chassis and other vehicle parts manufactured in China, Han told reporters in an interview. He did not reveal the amount Windrose was investing in the project.

A US plant would help Windrose service customers better: American buyers account for a majority of Windrose's existing order book, Han said. The company currently has an order backlog of 6,400 trucks with deliveries lined up over the next three years. 

"The US market is friendly towards Chinese heavy electric trucks based on the fact that the tariffs on imported trucks are much lower than those on cars," Han said in the interview, given to Reuters. "Many of our clients are US firms, for example, Nike... and we can serve them in their home market," the news agency quoted him as saying.

Windrose offers a heavy truck that comes with a battery pack of more than 700 KWh capacity, allowing the vehicle to travel more than 670 km on a single charge when carrying a full load of 49 tonnes.

The vehicle competes directly with Tesla's electric truck, dubbed the 'Semi'. Both models are priced similarly at ~$250,000. Tesla began manufacturing the Semi in 2022, but volume production is only set to being towards the end of 2025. The Elon Musk-led company is setting up capacity for 50,000 Semis annually adjacent to the company's Giga Nevada facility.