With US President Donald Trump saying his tariffs on China and other countries will help rebuild manufacturing in the US, an electric vehicle startup with roots in China is ready to join the effort.
Windrose Technology is currently refurbishing an old assembly plant for long-haul trucks in California, scheduled for completion by July. It aims to select a second, larger manufacturing site to serve US customers by the end of this year and open it in early 2026. And although founder and CEO Wen Han described Trump’s unpredictable trade war with China as “annoying,” he brushed off the impact while vowing to stay the course.
“I don’t spend time worrying about things,” Han said. “I just try to do it and then quickly learn, and then pivot if I need to.”
Windrose is a rare company of Chinese origin blazing a trail in the US vehicle market. Han’s decision to build trucks locally—the company rented the old facility this quarter—looks set to pay off, allowing Windrose to sidestep at least the heaviest tariff blows. US duty rates on all imported goods from China, where Windrose currently manufactures its trucks, are a minimum of 30% for the time being, under a fragile 90-day “truce” the superpowers reached in mid-May. Shipping costs have also skyrocketed due to Washington’s stop-and-start trade policies.
In early March, the company shipped four electric trucks to the US from China, incurring a more than 50% tariff rate.
Even as its trucks are set to be manufactured in the US, the startup, like many clean energy businesses, will continue to rely on imported components. That includes battery cells from China-based suppliers CALB and Eve Energy, although both are building plants in Europe and Eve is constructing a battery plant in Mississippi with Daimler and Paccar that is expected to go online next year.
The costs of imported parts are difficult to estimate due to the volatile trade environment, but Han said his company will be able to negotiate with its suppliers to keep prices in check.
“We have enough margin to play with [that] the tariffs are not devastating yet,” he said. He added that shipping parts into the country and building the trucks on US soil will be cheaper than shipping an entire truck.
Tu Le, founder and managing director of Sino Auto Insights, was less sanguine. He said sourcing from China will pose similar challenges to those Windrose’s competitors face. “It’s a damned if you do damned if you don’t proposition,” he said.
China’s advanced supply chain for EV components and batteries has helped Windrose develop and produce trucks within three years of its founding.
In contrast, US EV maker Tesla announced its electric truck eight years ago but is not due to begin production until the end of next year. Nikola, another startup that sought to build heavy-duty electric trucks, filed for bankruptcy in February. Bollinger Motors paused vehicle production amid lawsuits alleging the company is insolvent.
China’s supply chain has benefited from heavy government subsidies and support, leading to cost and quality advantages. Sourcing within the US is not yet an option for Windrose as the domestic battery industry is “not quite ready,” Han said, citing slow production and adoption among US truck and car companies. Engineering talent with battery expertise is also lacking, he added.
“We would like to see it accelerate better, and we’re helping do that,” Han said, adding that more engineering students need to be trained from a younger age. In February, Windrose donated USD 1 million to Kettering University in Michigan to expand its sustainability initiative and help foster partnerships with the renewable energy sector.
Han expects it will take five to ten years for the US to build up its EV supply chain. But the clean energy sector’s development could slow now that the House of Representatives has passed a bill to scale back tax credits for clean energy projects. Tax credits of up to USD 40,000 for commercial battery vehicle purchases would be terminated next year if the Senate passes the bill, and Windrose’s electric trucks would be impacted.
“I think it’s unfortunate,” Han said. “I would have loved to see more of a push [by the government], but companies need to survive without subsidies. So it simply makes my industry more competitive. It drives some of our competitors out of business, and that’s kind of a healthy cleansing process.”
Le of Sino Auto Insights worries there is little incentive for logistics companies to switch to electric, hampering demand. “When the US government isn’t also subsidizing the purchase,” he said, “there will not be enough demand to support the electric makers.”
But Han stressed, “Subsidies are crutches, and we need to be able to run without crutches eventually.”
So far, the company has produced roughly 30 trucks in China, a fraction of its ambitious goal of 10,000 by 2027. Han said there were 6,000 signed orders, but globally, just 200 committed orders have been backed by a 5% deposit of the USD 250,000 price tag, which is less than what rivals charge.
The new facility in California’s Huntington Beach will be able to assemble fewer than 1,000 trucks annually when it becomes operational. The USD 100 million second factory—to be set up in California, Arizona or Georgia—will have an annual output capacity of 5,000 trucks when it goes online before the end of June 2026, Han said.
Windrose recently announced a partnership with JoyRide Logistics after its 700-kilowatt-hour-battery trucks received road regulatory approval in the Ocean Network Express and Australia’s Toll Group are also piloting Windrose trucks and are in discussion about purchase agreements.
Han, 35, described his company’s rapid global expansion strategy of going “glocal” as a necessity, as protectionism spreads. Last year, Windrose opened a headquarters in the Belgian port city of Antwerp. The truck maker is also opening a production plant there as well as in Oanning, in northern France, by the end of the year.
Running a startup from China in a geopolitically charged business landscape comes with a unique set of challenges. Potential customers have turned down Windrose’s products over the stigma that Chinese products are second-rate, Han said.
“Being a Chinese-origin company, we’re getting more scrutiny,” he said. He also pointed to issues with raising money from foreign investors as a China-domiciled startup.
Trump has sought to restrict US investment in strategic sectors in China and is looking to limit how Chinese companies can list on US stock exchanges.
Despite these headwinds, Han remains confident his company can go public in the US this year, when its goal will be to raise USD 500 million. He has set his sights on France for a secondary listing.
With nearly all Chinese EVs facing barriers to enter the US market, and as the Trump administration tightens screws, even on Chinese students, Windrose’s bets on America appear audacious. Yet Han is unfazed.
“I try to focus on building the product in the most efficient but really good way,” he said. “And then naturally, we will find solutions if we understand the market quickly and deeply enough.”
This article first appeared on Nikkei Asia. It has been republished here as part of 36Kr’s ongoing partnership with Nikkei.