An embodiment of a control system for controlling operation of an electric motor includes a current command module configured to receive a torque command and output a current command, and a current controller module configured to generate a modulation index value based on the current command. The system also includes a signal generator configured to generate a voltage signal modulated via a pulse width modulation (PWM) scheme based on the modulation index value, the PWM scheme being a combination of a continuous PWM scheme and a non-continuous PWM scheme based on the modulation index value being greater than or equal to a first threshold value, the signal generator configured to output the voltage signal to the electric motor.