It’s been almost a year since GM’s CEO Mary Barra promised the company would have an affordable, 200-mile electric vehicle priced at $30,000. That statement brought a ton of press, and many nay-sayers who thought it couldn’t be done.

Well, today, GM announced the first 3 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EVs have been delivered to customers in the San Francisco Bay Area – Tesla’s backyard! GM chose the location for the first deliveries because “the Bay Area is one of the largest markets for the Chevy Electric family and Fremont Chevrolet (dealership) is the number one store for Volt sales this year, making it the perfect location for Bolt EV to make its debut.”

First deliveries go to:

• William “Bill” Mattos, a retired law enforcement officer from Fremont, California, whose new Bolt EV becomes his third Chevrolet electric, after previously owning a Spark EV and second-generation Volt
• Bobby Edmonds, a software developer with a family of four from Castro Valley, California, who replaces a BMW i3 with the Bolt EV
• Steve Henry, a commercial real estate broker with a family of five from Portola Valley, California, whose new Bolt EV replaces a Toyota Prius

GM says that Bolt EVs are currently in transit to Oregon and California and will arrive this month. Nationwide, the Bolt rollout will begin in 2017 with New York, Massachusetts and Virginia seeing first deliveries in Winter 2017. Throughout the first half of next year, the EV will arrive in additional major metro markets and across the country in mid-2017.

GM needs to make sure it takes advantage of the 1 year lead it has on the Tesla Model 3, and will work hard to make sure it maintains the lead in the entry-level 200-mile EV category.

Currently, the Orion plant, where the Bolt EV is being produced, is running on 1 shift and is building 100 Bolts per day, but has the ability to operate 24/7 with 3 shifts to produce 300 EVs pear day. GM’s plant launch manager for the Bolt, Yves Dontigny, says “We want to be on three shifts, depending on market demand.”