Electric drive is widely used in automotive practice. Its basis is an electric traction motor (TM), which, compared with an internal combustion engine (ICE), has such advantages as high efficiency, high overload capacity, a wide range of speed control, and the possibility of torque direct transmission to the drive wheels. The main requirements for a traction motor are high efficiency over the entire load range, ease of speed and torque control, high overload capacity, small weight and dimensions, regenerative braking capability, wide speed control range, simplicity and ease of maintenance. The most widely used as traction motors are synchronous electric machines with excitation from permanent magnets (PM). They are characterized by high torque density, efficiency and power consistency over a wide speed range. However, there are a number of problems that hinder the introduction of these electric machines in the traction drive of home cars, one of which is the lack of a methodology for choosing the design of an armature and an inductor at the stage of calculating the main dimensions of an TM with magnetoelectric excitation, taking into account the variety of schemes and methods of winding, PM placement in the inductor. The article deals with the issues of choosing electromagnetic loads for various cooling methods, the size of the non-magnetic gap, an algorithm for electromagnetic calculation based on the maximum torque, containing a number of refining cycles, is proposed. The values of inductances and design factors are determined by numerical simulation of the magnetic field. The features of the design and circuit design of the core and armature winding are considered. Distribution curves of magnetomotive forces of distributed and concentrated windings are obtained, their harmonic analysis is made, recommendations are given on the configuration of the TD armature active zone.