{"id":82176,"date":"2025-05-02T08:04:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T12:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=82176"},"modified":"2025-05-02T08:04:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T12:04:16","slug":"act-expo-2025-windrose-gets-real-and-wen-han-wins-the-swag-wars-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=82176","title":{"rendered":"ACT Expo 2025 \u2013\u00a0Windrose gets real, and Wen Han wins the swag wars [part 2]"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\"Chinese<\/figure>\n

Windrose arrived at the ACT Expo<\/a> in Anaheim this week on a high, with not one but several<\/em> of its 400-mile sleeper cab electric semis, news that its first customer trucks had been deployed in the US, and a $300 million funding goal. But what got the press really excited? A 1:18 scale model of the R700.<\/p>\n

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Windrose CEO Wen Han has reportedly\u00a0raised his funding goal to $300 million, according to a Reuters<\/em> report<\/a>, as it works to build out new assembly plants in both Belgium and the US, in a bid to sidestep anti-Chinese patents on its 700 kWH R700 electric semi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I got a chance to sit with Wen (he asked me not<\/em> to call him Mr. Han), and found him to be somewhat different than I expected. For starters, he tracks as American \u2013\u00a0not the traditional Chinese businessman I expected. He studied at Stanford, worked in Connecticut, speaks convincingly fluent Spanish, and loves basketball enough to have bought the local Antwerp Giants<\/a> basketball team at Windrose\u2019 new corporate hometown. And, sure, there\u2019s some of the typical finance- and tech-bro bravado and weirdness there, but Wen is young enough and charming enough that it comes across as youthful exuberance.<\/p>\n

Whatever you think of Wen or his trucks, though, one thing is unquestionably true: the man understands that journalists love<\/em> trade show swag, and he showed up with a stout, 1:18 scale die-cast version of the Windrose R700.<\/p>\n

\tAdvertisement – scroll for more content<\/span><\/p>\n

Awesomesauce<\/h2>\n

That\u2019s not three pictures of one model semi \u2013\u00a0that\u2019s three pictures of three model semi trucks in the ACT Expo press room. Clean Trucking<\/em> senior editor Jay Traugott<\/a> (above, left) got his first, and sent the assembled media into a mild frenzy. Everyone<\/em> had to touch the truck, feel its mass, and explore the \u201canatomically correct\u201d depiction of the Windrose\u2019 electric axles, batteries, and center seating position. The model\u2019s sliding door even opens, giving you a detailed look into the Windrose\u2019 cabin and, if you look \u201cup,\u201d through the truck\u2019s skylight.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s my favorite.<\/p>\n

There were real ones, too<\/h2>\n
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