EVWire brief: The electric Class 8 Semi truck maker Windrose has confirmed they chose Valenciennes, France, as a production location in Europe, investing €175M and creating 300 jobs by 2027. This is in addition to the series production already underway in Suzhou, China, and plans for production in the US. Meanwhile, the plans for the global headquarters, R&D, and industrial site in Antwerp, Belgium remain.
The Windrose story is unfolding
The Windrose R700 Class 8 electric truck is designed to meet the needs of real-world long-haul operations with a 729kWh battery, up to 420 miles of range (416 per latest EPA rating) helped by its drag coefficient of 0.2755, and dual charging support (CCS, MCS, and dual gun rapid charging). It has a <24,000 lbs curb weight, 1,400hp and plenty of smart features from a sliding entry door to scent diffusers (see my thread below for details).
Windrose has shown true China EV speed, but applied across the world now — it went from the first idea on 22nd March 2022 to the first batch of production trucks on November 20th, 2024. As of writing, the Windrose vehicles are already deployed across four continents—North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania—and are interoperable with more than 200 charging providers worldwide.
Windrose announced in late April that the company has delivered the first-ever all-electric, long-haul sleeper truck to a US fleet customer: JoyRide Logistics, to be used in Arizona, California, and Nevada. Windrose is searching for a location in the US for a manufacturing plant. Savannah, Georgia, has been mentioned, although it seems the CEO is still looking.
And just last week, on the 22nd of May, the Windrose Semi completed a full interoperability test at Greenlane’s new heavy-duty charging site in Colton, California, charging at up to 738kW using their dual connector charging system and two Alpitronic HYC 400 chargers.
I personally happened to be one of the first people in the world to ride along in the Windrose Semi late last year. Click to see all the insights, photos, and videos I made about it in the following thread:
Holy frunk. I got an exclusive chance to ride in the Windrose Semi and film it all! A thread🧵:
1. To be honest, I expected a cheap Tesla knock-off. Now, I think they might just be learning from the best.
Why does it look so much like a Tesla Semi? They said the cab is...
— #Jaan of the EV Universe ⚡ (#@TheEVuniverse)
1:30 PM • Sep 20, 2024
Windrose has also recently completed the longest loaded round-trip of an electric truck in the world, in China: 12 days, 18 charges, 9,464km (5,880 miles). This isn’t the only long-distance trip they’ve showcased, either — late 2024, Windrose completed an 2,800-mile (4,500 km) transcontinental journey in the US in bobtail, using only public charging stations. They’re bound to complete one this year with a trailer, but here are some of the results of their tests from June 2024:
And here’s one of their fully loaded trips with ATC in Europe, fully loaded at 40t gross (88k lbs):
Quote:
“Not only do I live in Antwerp myself but we have also brought our global headquarters to Belgium. For that reason, the company we are taking public will also be a Belgian company. Our plan remains to open an industrial site both in Belgium and in France. I eagerly await the Belgian, Flemish and Antwerp responses, as we have seen in France, to our proposal.
It remains our intention to also bring our headquarters and R&D department to Antwerp. In addition, our vision is to make Antwerp the main gateway for all imports and exports of Windrose Technology trucks and parts.”
Sources: Wen Han quote; France location announcement, Chinese roundtrip, my thread from riding the Windrose at IAA.
