Antwerp’s industry gets an electric jolt. Windrose, a little-known Chinese electric truck startup with outsized ambitions, has chosen the Belgian port city as the site of its first European factory.
With promises of thousands of vehicles, hundreds of jobs, and a streamlined supply chain linking China, Belgium, and France, the decision marks a breakthrough after months of uncertainty.
Windrose’s trail isn’t unshaken, but the company led by Chinese entrepreneur Wen Han has finally decided on the location for its first European factory. The company, which is already headquartered in Antwerp, has confirmed it will open an assembly plant in the Belgian port city. The first trucks will already leave the factory floor this year.
Slow start
The plan involves an initial investment of €100 million to produce 2,000 trucks annually in phase one. In a second phase, production will ramp up to 5,000 units. The start is slow, given that Volvo Trucks’ Ghent plant is capable of producing 45,000 units.
However, Volvo doesn’t publish separate production numbers for the electric trucks assembled at the site, making a direct comparison difficult.
Founder and CEO Wen Han described the decision to locate in Antwerp as strategic, with parts shipped from China to be assembled on a 9.5-hectare site on Noorderlaan, formerly occupied by tractor manufacturer CNH. A local partnership with real estate developer Van Wellen allows the use of existing facilities, avoiding lengthy permitting delays.
The trucks from Windrose, which boast a claimed 670-kilometer range and a competitive €250,000 price tag, have now received full European homologation. Even prototypes, Han says, will be built in Antwerp, not China. However, the envisioned process seems to focus on assembling kits rather than manufacturing e-trucks from the ground up.
Skepticism
The road towards landing in Antwerp has also been cobbly. Initially, Han pitched a fully integrated production center in Antwerp. Still, that vision was scaled back after both the Flemish and Belgian public investment funds walked away following due diligence trips to China.
They assessed that the project was too immature to warrant taxpayer funding. Windrose then turned to private capital and claims to have secured sufficient funding to kickstart manufacturing.
Skepticism hasn’t withered completely after a whistleblower earlier accused the company of unpaid salaries, fake shipping announcements, and operating from a caravan after losing access to offices. Han has never publicly addressed the allegations.
Even local authorities had initial doubts. Jacques Vandermeiren, CEO of Port of Antwerp-Bruges, admitted during yesterday’s press conference that he too was at first “skeptical” about the viability of Windrose’s design and regulatory path. But with homologation in hand and a joint venture established, Vandermeiren is now optimistic. “Han is a fighter,” he said. “I believe the hurdles can be overcome.”
200 deposits
Whether customers agree remains to be seen. Windrose claims over 6,000 transport firms have expressed interest, and 200 have placed deposits. Currently, around 30 trucks are in real-world testing. Maintenance partners are being lined up, and sales efforts have begun across Europe.
Antwerp, for its part, is betting on momentum. The factory’s proximity to the city should improve access to talent, while new container traffic is expected to boost port activity. The second site in Valenciennes, France, which was also in the running for the manufacturing title, will handle heavier production tasks and ship components to Antwerp for final assembly.
The rollout is being framed as deliberate rather than delayed. But for a company still facing questions about its solvency and actual production capacity, Windrose’s Antwerp venture could become either the basis for a breakthrough or a costly European misstep.
