China-based electric truck startup Windrose Technology Inc. plans to build a manufacturing plant in Savannah, Georgia, for its line of semi-trucks, according to Reuters.
Officials for Windrose said they have 6,400 existing orders for Class 8 EV trucks, with the majority of orders coming from U.S. companies.
“The U.S. 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 Wen, founder and CEO of Windrose, told Reuters. “Many of our clients are U.S. firms, for example, Nike … and we can serve them in their home market.”
Wen said the company plans to deliver EV trucks to customers in 2025. Windrose, which has yet to produce any vehicles, also has plans for factories in Antwerp, Belgium, and Suzhou, China.
Windrose’s Class 8 EV truck will cost about $250,000 and come with a battery pack of more than 700 kilowatt hours and capacity to run more than 418 miles on a single charge fully loaded carrying over 108,000 pounds.
Wen founded Windrose Technology in March 2022 in Hefei, China. Prior to founding Windrose, he was the chief strategy and financial officer at autonomous trucking company Plus.
In April, Windrose Technology completed a Series B funding round of $110 million, with investments from HSBC, HITE Hedge Asset Management and digital infrastructure specialist Goodman Group.