Last night, with considerable showmanship, Tesla CEO Elon Musk proudly unveiled the Roadster 2 just nine years after first announcing the car, and made it “fly.” While undeniably impressive, you could also describe the spectacle as Tesla making its long-delayed luxury car “do a big hop” and then, as Buzz Lightyear would say, “fall with style.”

During the reveal in McGregor, Texas, at SpaceX’s rocket development and testing facility, the two-seater Roadster 2 launched itself over the automaker’s entire lineup, shot from 0 to 60 mph in less than a second, and then drove upside down off a high ramp to then flip over midair and land back down on the ground, cushioning its rapid descent using onboard thrusters.

All this was pure gold for social clips (though at the time of publication, Tesla’s stock price was down after the event), but how did Tesla make its new EV prototype perform these tricks? Tesla vehicle engineering head Lars Moravy went into detail with auto lifestyle and insurance brand Hagerty before yesterday’s event, explaining how the Roadster 2 works.

Franz von Holzhausen, Tesla’s chief designer since 2008, designed the angular exterior. He also helmed the aesthetic of the Cybertruck, Models S, X, 3, and Y, as well as the Semi. Blacked-out windows obscured any view inside the EV, which carried no human driver anyway because, as Musk said, Tesla wanted “to make sure we don’t kill anyone” during the gravity-defying demonstration.

Powertrain and Battery

The Roadster 2 will be rear-wheel-drive only, a departure from Tesla’s track record of all-wheel-drive EVs. Two motors will deliver over a megawatt of power (1,341 horsepower) and over 1,400 newton-meters (Nm) of torque, meaning this car will have more torque and power than a three-motor Plaid. But all of that power goes through just the rear wheels.

The car will be light, at “just under 1,700 kilos” (under 2 tons), according to Moravy, not significantly heavier than the original 1,300-kg (1.4-ton) Roadster, despite a larger size.