Windrose Technology, the Chinese electric truck developer headquartered in Antwerp, might face insolvency. One of its senior executives publicly accused the company of failing to pay employees, while staging misleading announcements.
Windrose’s Director of Customer Success and Operations, Kyle Maki, wrote on LinkedIn that the company is now 90 days behind on payroll and has been operating without proper facilities.
According to his account, staff have been working from a caravan for the past two months after Windrose lost access to its offices. He also claimed that a recent social media post about truck cabs being shipped from Los Angeles was fabricated, stating that the vehicles had never left the port due to unpaid bills.
‘No money’
“While Windrose has been posting about taking customer deposits, the reality is that there is no money. The team has been working out of a trailer because we no longer have a proper facility. The ‘cabs being shipped over’ post? Those cabs never left… all a marketing stunt,” Maki wrote.
Maki placed direct blame on founder and CEO Wen Han, accusing him of prioritizing media exposure over the company’s financial health. “Wen’s number one priority seems to have been getting featured in outlets like The New York Times, Yahoo, or being on CNBC,” he wrote. “Not paying his employees or fixing the company’s financial crisis.”
Han has not responded publicly to the accusations, and Windrose has issued no official statement. On his own LinkedIn profile, the CEO has continued to post updates highlighting international expansion plans and customer interest.
Headquartered in Antwerp
Founded just three years ago in Hefei, Windrose pursued a strategy centered on rapid international growth, despite limited resources. The company’s flagship product is the R700 long-haul electric tractor, capable of traveling more than 670 kilometers on a single charge. However, compared to its rivals, the e-truck aims to be half the price.
Windrose is strongly tied to Antwerp, and the company is officially structured as a Belgian business. 34-year-old CEO Wen Han doesn’t lack ambition and promised to start production in the port area of Antwerp by the end of the year, as the company is now relying on contract manufacturing agreements.
However, that course was later changed – or rather put on ice – after the Flemish and Belgian investment funds decided not to greenlight their financial support.
European homologation
Subsequently, the decision fell to France (Onnaing) for the first European factory, although plans for an R&D center in Antwerp, where Han lives, remain in place.
The CEO has applied for Belgian citizenship and also moved the global headquarters of his start-up to the district ’t Eilandje. On top of that, the e-truck maker is the main sponsor of the local basketball team Windrose Antwerp Giants.
The challenges have been steep. The latest version of the European homologation process, incorporating strict cybersecurity rules, has been a headache for the company.
As of last May, approval was still pending, and EU homologation processes are renowned for their slow pace. The process could take years, meaning the trucks are not immediately sellable, depriving Windrose of much-needed income.
Meanwhile, the global shift toward protectionism has derailed the plan to export trucks from Europe or China to the US. President Trump’s policy forced Windrose to construct a local production facility, for which it chose Los Angeles.
To secure funding, a stock listing was scheduled for this year in both Europe and the US, but after Trump vowed to delist Chinese companies, that plan also faces a delay. As with many start-ups, Windrose is driving on cobble roads.
