Nine years after Elon Musk vowed to electrify trucking with Tesla’s electric Semi, the vehicle is finally edging into something like regular production. The twist: while Tesla has treated the Semi’s real-world pricing like a state secret, a Chinese-European upstart is doing the opposite—rolling into the U.S. market with a Tesla-shaped electric big rig and a number on the window.

That company is Windrose Tech, led by CEO and founder Wen Han, 35, who will cheerfully tell you most anything you want to know about his electric big rig: price, range, weight, hauling capacity —and, yes, why the truck looks like it came out of the same design team meeting as Tesla’s.

“Our truck looks a lot like the Tesla because that's what the aerodynamics dictate,” Han said by video chat, standing outside a restaurant on a chilly night in Antwerp, Belgium (where Windrose is now headquartered). “Somewhat surprisingly, we managed to patent in the United States our cab design, and also the chassis.”

“Fuel cost is much bigger for fleets than driver costs, and is much bigger than truck costs”

“Fuel cost is much bigger for fleets than driver costs, and is much bigger than truck costs”

Windrose has begun selling initial units of its electric truck to customers in California and Texas. The company’s 1,400-horsepower R700 model is priced at $300,000 and targets about 400 miles per charge. It weighs in at just over 22,000 pounds and can haul up to 60,000 pounds of cargo in the U.S. Han’s pitch includes three months of free charging via Greenlane Infrastructure, which is building high-powered charging stations in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona. (It has similar arrangements in Europe, where it just announced a charging partnership with France’s ENGIE Vianeo, and the truck sells for 250,000 Euros.)

Tesla’s price hasn’t been publicly disclosed yet. Early customers tell Forbes it runs between $225,000 and about $300,000, based on range-per-charge of either 300 miles or 500 miles. That’s a wee bit more than the $180,000 Musk publicly pegged it at back in 2017 (though cheaper than electric models from Kenworth, Daimler and Volvo that can cost $400,000).

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While both the Windrose and Tesla trucks are priced at least $100,000 more than diesel-powered models, they qualify for generous credits in California – from the state, local pollution agencies and utilities – that nearly offset the full purchase price. And in Texas, which has built up its electric power generation capacity with big new wind, solar and battery projects, electricity is a cheaper way to move freight.

Han, who recently moved the company’s headquarters to Antwerp from Hefei, China, wants to build as many as 2,000 units this year, with a few hundred of those coming to the U.S., as it also begins sales in Europe, Latin America and Asian markets. In 2027, with contract production in China, Europe, and possibly the U.S., he aims to produce at least 10,000 units and then scale up from there.

“The United States will be one of our biggest markets,” he said. And even with high tariffs, “we’ll make money.”

Han is kickstarting sales with imported units, built in China under contract with Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group and Higer Bus, and is working with Los Angeles-based electric truckmaker Xos as its distributor in California. Longer term, he next wants to build a dedicated U.S. factory, possibly in Arizona, to reduce import fees and boost profitability. “In the meantime, we’d also like to work with Xos in their Tennessee site for manufacturing.”

Despite the cost advantage Windrose is tapping, in the form of China’s fast, low-cost supply base for electric vehicles and batteries, it’s still a gamble for the young company, founded in 2022. It’s raised about $400 million so far–mainly from Chinese investors—to try to crack a U.S. market for electric heavy-duty trucks that has been more boutique than boom, averaging roughly 1,000 units a year in recent years.

Tesla, as always, has talked the biggest of games, aiming to sell as many as 50,000 Semis annually, built at a new assembly line at its Nevada Gigafactory. But in its latest earnings report, the company quietly removed a Semi production capacity reference. Changes in federal regulations and incentives for clean trucks under the Trump administration have muddied the market outlook this year, according to Ann Rundle, vice president of trucking industry consultant ACT Research.

“It's sort of a wild card, but we see it for 2026 at pretty low numbers – just under 1,400 units,” she told Forbes last month.

The economics are swinging in two directions at once. The rising price of electricity over the past year has increased the cost of charging big electric trucks like Windrose’s and Tesla’s. But the U.S. war with Iran has sent diesel prices soaring even faster, up 40% to $5.16 nationally in the past month, according to AAA. If fuel stays expensive, electric trucks start looking less like a climate virtue and more like a spreadsheet decision.

“Fuel cost is much bigger for fleets than driver costs, and is much bigger than truck costs,” said Han. “The biggest cost you want to eliminate is the fuel.”

The Windrose truck currently gets about 100 miles less range per charge than Tesla’s because it uses less energy-dense lithium-iron battery cells, made by China’s CALB. The advantage, according to Windrose, is that the chemistry is less prone to overheating and has more overall durability compared with lithium-ion cells used in the Tesla Semi. In 2027, an upgraded version of the truck will sell as the E960, featuring a new lithium-manganese-iron battery that Han expects will provide 600 miles of range per charge, 20% more than Tesla’s model. Pricing isn’t set but “will not be much higher” than the current 400-mile truck, he told Forbes.

A Chinese national, Han went to high school and college in the U.S., earning an MBA from Stanford. In addition to speaking flawless English, he’s also fluent in Spanish, which is helpful since Windrose recently set up a partnership in Chile and wants to sell into multiple other South American markets. Prior to Windrose, he was CFO and head of strategy for PlusAI, a Silicon Valley-based autonomous trucking technology developer with Chinese roots that separated its U.S. and China operations in 2023.

That experience helped shape Windrose’s pitch: autonomy, he argues, is easier to build into an electric platform than to bolt onto diesel.

“True autonomy does not come on top of a diesel truck. It’s nearly impossible,” Han said, pointing to hardware changes like steering systems that need to be designed differently for automated driving.

The Windrose truck isn’t currently automated, though it has some driver-assist capabilities, including adaptive cruise control, lane-centering, and automatic emergency braking. It’s also sold as a sleeper cab, with rear seating that folds into a bed. Its cabin is also similar to Tesla Semis, with a centered driving seat and flat-screen display panels.

As U.S. sales get underway, Han is hoping to complete an additional $100 million funding round. He’s also not worried about the reversal in federal support for clean trucks undercutting demand for battery-powered models.

“It's okay. The [administration] doesn't need to care,” he said. “People care about money. Electricity is cheaper than diesel for a truck.”

© Forbes