SHANGHAI (Reuters) -Chinese electric truck startup Windrose plans to set up a U.S. assembly plant for its semi-trucks for delivery there from 2025, directly challenging Tesla in its home market, founder and Chief Executive Han Wen said in an interview.

The move signals a potential return of Chinese electric vehicle companies to the world's second-largest auto market, and comes after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has repeatedly said he would support such investment in the U.S..

President Joe Biden's administration, in contrast, has sought to keep Chinese electric vehicles out of the United States via heavy tariffs, and excluded components linked to China from its electric auto incentive schemes, effectively shutting out investment from China's EV industry.

That policy has kept BYD, China's biggest EV maker and currently in the middle of a global expansion plan, from making moves to set up plants or sell cars in the U.S..

Windrose's U.S. plant, to be located in Georgia, will piece together chassis and other vehicle parts manufactured in China to serve its U.S. customers, Han told Reuters on Friday.

U.S. buyers account for the majority of the company's existing order book of 6,400 trucks, which it aims to make and deliver over the next three years, he said. Han did not say how much Windrose would invest in the United States or give specifics on how many orders come from buyers there.

"The U.S. market is friendly towards Chinese heavy electric trucks based on the fact that the tariffs on imported trucks are much lower than those on cars," Han said.

"Many of our clients are U.S. firms, for example, Nike... and we can serve them in their home market."

Windrose's heavy truck will compete directly with Tesla's Semi at the same price of about $250,000. The trucks will come with a battery pack of more than 700 kilowatt hours, with a capacity to run more than 670 km (418 miles) on a single charge fully loaded at 49 tons.

Tesla is yet to mass produce and deliver the Semi trucks and as of April it had delivered 36 of 100 electric trucks it promised to PepsiCo in 2017, making other food distributors and retailers turn to rival electric-truck makers, Reuters reported previously.

EXPANSION IN EUROPE

Windrose also plans an assembly plant in Belgium next year and will start moving more sophisticated manufacturing work to its overseas plants, Han said.

The European Union has imposed an extra tariff of up to 38% on EVs imported from China to counter what it says are unfair state subsidies.

Han said it was a "justified move" given the EU wants to develop an EV supply chain in Europe, similar to what China has done in recent decades.

"Belgium is backing and introducing us to the region just like what Shanghai did for Tesla. They also hope we will be a catfish in Europe, to teach them how to build an EV and to help them get out of their dark 'Middle Age'," Han said, referring to a widely used Chinese analogy for a catalyst.

China approved Tesla's opening of a Shanghai plant in 2018, hoping that dropping a big "catfish", Tesla, in the tank would motivate smaller fish, China's EV makers, to swim faster.

Windrose, founded by Han two years ago, will start delivering its first batch of electric trucks in China in August and aims to achieve a global production capacity of more than 10,000 annually by the end of 2027.

Han's team of 140 people develops and designs the Windrose trucks but manufacturing is being outsourced to Chinese automakers Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group and Higer Bus.

Windrose's battery suppliers CALB and EVE Energy are also building battery plants in Europe.