ELECTRIFIED VEHICLE WITH WOUND ROTOR SYNCHRONOUS ELECTRIC MACHINE CONTROLLED TO HEAT BATTERY

An electrified vehicle includes a wound rotor synchronous electric machine configured to provide propulsive torque to wheels of the electrified vehicle and having a rotor with rotor windings and a stator with stator windings, a battery electrically coupled to the electric machine, a cooling system arranged to circulate a cooling fluid that transfers heat from the electric machine to the battery, and a controller programmed to, for a specified electric machine torque, control rotor current to the rotor windings and control stator current to the stator windings to operate the machine at an inefficient operating point that increases stator power losses to generate heat transferred to the cooling fluid to heat the battery, cabin, and/or other components. The controller performs closed-loop feedback control of stator winding current and rotor winding current based on a target machine output torque and target stator power loss to control the amount of heat generated.