In 32 years, Tony Roma has done it all.

The longtime engineer, who started his General Motors career working on the C4 Corvette, replaced Tadge Juechter last July as executive chief engineer for Corvette and the performance cars team. Roma's toughest project, though, may be the Cadillac Celestiq, the pinnacle of Cadillac engineering and a halo vehicle for the brand, which is on U.S. drivers' radar again for its current roster of sleek and competent electric SUVs.

Roma and his team were tasked with creating an ultra-luxe sedan that was technologically advanced and delivered the performance expected of a vehicle with a six-figure price tag (655 horsepower and 646 lb.-ft. of torque; zero to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds).

Six years later, customer deliveries of the $350K sedan have commenced. Each unit is built by hand in Warren, Michigan, and Roma is still heavily involved in the vehicle's planning and rollout.

Roma sat down with ABC News to talk about the pressures of making an engineering and design masterpiece, why EVs are fun to drive and how the Celestiq is "trying to make your life better."

The interview below has been edited for clarity.

Q: You've been working on the Celestiq for six years. What was more important to achieve: performance, design or comfort?

A: I was employee No. 1 on the Celestiq. When you're creating something like Celestiq, all the things you mentioned are equally important. It had to fulfill the design -- that was mission critical. It had to be a rolling work of art. The craftsmanship had to be authentic and real. At the same time, at least from an engineering perspective, it had to back it up by an actual, credible car -- it had to be amongst the best cars in the world. Well executed, surprisingly comfortable, nimble, athletic -- it had to be surprisingly beautiful and surprisingly well crafted and dynamic and comfortable.

MORE: Electric vehicles and the $350K Celestiq: How Cadillac is trying to win back customers

Q: How important is the car's performance to customers?

A: Different clients come at it for different reasons. One of our clients is an owner of an art gallery in Miami. He's certainly buying this car because of the aesthetics and the vision. But this person will be delighted by the fact that it's a competent luxury car. For other customers, if the Celestiq didn't have the [driving] dynamics, they wouldn't be interested.

Cadillac - PHOTO: The $350K Celestiq "had to be a rolling work of art," chief engineer Tony Roma told ABC News.

Q: Why does everyone care about horsepower in an electric vehicle? The instant torque already makes them so fast.

A: It's not trying to be the best electric car in the world -- the Celestiq is trying to be among the best cars in the world. It just happens to be propelled by electricity. The gimmick with EVs is that they're quick. There's a difference between quick and fast. Top speed usually isn't an EV thing. It's all about going 0-60 mph in these frankly uncomfortable numbers. If you've ever been in some of these, you can get queasy as a passenger. Sometimes it's not even an enjoyable thing.

For Celestiq, we don't talk about big power numbers. Zero to 60 in 3.7 seconds is plenty fast -- it doesn't need to show off in that way. It's not a differentiator anymore -- all EVs are fast. But what else can you do for me? With Celestiq, it's the ride, air springs, the MR dampers, the technology. The rear steer when you're maneuvering around parking lots -- it pivots into these parking spots with confidence even though it's huge.

Cadillac - PHOTO: Chief engineer Tony Roma said the Celestiq's adaptive air ride suspension and active rear steering make it drivable every day.

Q: The main competitor to the Celestiq is the Rolls-Royce Spectre, which is now available as a Black Badge. Would we see a variant like that for Celestiq? The Celestiq V maybe?

A: Honestly I doubt we'll do a performance variant of the Celestiq. We wouldn't just add power and call it a V. The volume on this car is so incredibly low. I don't think there's a huge market ... I would be surprised if we decided to do that.

Q: EVs drive very differently depending on the brand. So what was important from an engineering aspect for this vehicle? Did you want it to drive like a internal combustion luxury sedan?

A: I wanted it to drive like a competent luxury sedan. You want your car to be your co-conspirator. You want it to be precise and turn in well and not be jarring. If you're on phone call, you want the noise to go away. Whatever you're doing, you want this car to help you do it in a way to make your life easier. Step on the brake and the power doors close. This car is trying to help make your life better.

Cadillac - PHOTO: Only 25 Celestiqs will be built in the first year of production. Each vehicle is built by hand and personally commissioned.

Q: This car is so niche and so expensive, did you face any pressure -- even from yourself -- to get it right?

A: Yes. There's insane pressure. This is a do it right or don't do it kinda thing. There's no halfway in this segment. We had a ton of very dynamic conversations along the way, arguing about whether a line on the door has to go that way. So yes, there was a lot of pressure but at the same time that's what we come to work for -- the opportunity to work on a project like this. It was awesome.

Q: What's more exciting for you as an engineer - how to squeeze every ounce of horsepower from an ICE engine or working on new battery technology?

A: It's solving hard technical problems. That's what gets us all out of bed in the morning. I'm a driver and I really enjoy driving, so you can kinda guess which vehicles I gravitate toward.- But the Celestiq has been a fantastic project.

Q: Why doesn't the enthusiast community think EVs are not fun to drive?

A: I think people don't like change. I think there's just an inertia to that change. A certain segment of the car community does think EVs are fun because they are -- the sudden acceleration, the instant torque. There are a number of EVs that handle really well and I have driven them on tracks. It will just take time. We're changing the culture of the car community in a very fundamental way. You can still buy a 1,064 hp monster Corvette -- nobody took that away from you.

MORE: New Corvette ZR1 revealed: Inside the car's 'mind-blowing' specs

Q: How important are motorsports events like Le Mans, where Cadillac had four cars in the Hypercar class, for selling Cadillacs to U.S. drivers?

A: It's the whole reason we've been doing the V-Series for the last 20 years. If you want to be a modern luxury brand, the expectation is this element of sport and competition and racing has been part of V-Series since the very beginning. It's been baked into our DNA. A lot of us who work on the street cars work on the race cars and travel with the race team. And I think our customers expect it and our brand would lose a certain amount of appeal if we didn't do things like this.