The present disclosure describes electric machines and methods for operating electric machines that provide improved fault tolerance, higher performance, better efficiency during extended speed and partial load operation, and superior thermal management. The electric machines include distributed wound stators having a modular structure composed of a plurality of drive modules. Each drive module can include a power supply that generates a poly-phase AC output that can be supplied to a plurality of conductors. The conductors can form a distributed winding. The distributed winding of each drive module can be uniformly distributed about the periphery of the stator.