VEHICLE DRIVE SYSTEM

A vehicle drive system includes a motor that has a cylindrical stator and a cylindrical rotor provided in the stator to be coaxially rotatable with a center axis of the stator and drives a front wheel of a vehicle by rotation of the rotor. The rotor has a cage section and a permanent magnet section provided on an inner circumferential side of the cage section and formed of a rare earth magnet. The vehicle drive system further includes a controller that executes a synchronous operation mode when a temperature of the permanent magnet section is lower than a predetermined temperature, and executes an asynchronous operation mode when the temperature of the permanent magnet section is equal to or higher than the predetermined temperature. In the synchronous operation mode, the rotor is rotated by using a magnetic force of the permanent magnet section.