The Ford F-150 Lightning is taking the electric truck world by storm. It’s practical, utilitarian, and affordable enough where the average Joe can get their hands on it. It can perform all the necessary truck duties while eliminating emissions. In other words, Ford knows they have a winner, and they’re getting ready to double the truck’s production rate for the 2024 model year.

Ford aims to produce 80,000 F-150 Lightnings by 2024

The Ford F-150 Lightning is set to face limited production for the 2022 model year, with just 15,000 units rolling off the assembly line. This is partly due to the shortage of semiconductors, otherwise known as chips. But after surprisingly high pre-order demand, Ford is bumping up their original production goal from 40,000 units by 2024 to 80,000.

How high is the demand, you might ask? Over 120,000 people put down a $100 deposit on a brand new Ford F-150 Lightning. But they may not even get their truck until 2024, even with the increased production. Crunch the numbers, you have 15,000 units in the first year, a proposed 55,000 by 2023, and then 80,000 units by 2024. That’d mean 150,000 Ford F-150 Lightnings would be built by 2024, which meets the 120,000 pre-order demands, but will take a while to get to.

However, this gradual production shift is by far the best course of action. Electric trucks often are full of more questions and answers, including if it’s worth it to purchase one. So while some loyalists might get a little antsy waiting two years for their Ford F-150 Lightning, the logic behind the plan is completely sound.

Why Ford’s gradual production plan is the best strategy

For starters, electric vehicles make up less than 1% of the cars on America’s motorways. Yeah, they’re all over the news because they’re exciting and fresh, but they haven’t quite reached a global, or even national scale yet. And it’ll be years before they wipe out the gas car.

But consumer interest is only half the battle, and as electric cars and trucks get better, more people will turn their attention toward those options. The kicker is that EVs have to get better first. That requires new technologies, like cheaper and more efficient batteries, as well as making sure lithium suppliers can keep up with demand. In other words, the electric car infrastructure is being built up as new models are being released.

Luckily, Ford is also on top of research and development too, opening Ion Park in Romulus Michigan for battery design and testing. That way, the F-150 Lightning becomes more than just a short term success.

Ford’s goals for the F-150 Lightning beyond 2024

Ford is already looking ahead, as every automaker should, to what lies ahead. By 2025, Ford hopes to be selling 160,000 F-150 Lightnings every year, an estimate based on exponential consumer interest. According to Car and Driver, that’d make up for 18% of all F-Series sales from 2019 On top of that, the automaker is already working on a second-generation F-150 Lightning to be released that same year.

So Ford has big plans for their electric truck, it’s not just a fad like the Cybertruck might be. But in order to get to that lofty 160,000 unit goal, Ford has to ease into the electric truck transition. While the world is close to adopting all-electric cars, we’re not there yet.