A method and controller to automatically determine a grounding condition of a motor drive, in which an inverter is operated at a predetermined frequency while a load resistor is connected between a single phase of a motor drive inverter output and a reference node, a leakage flux linkage value is computed according to a neutral-ground voltage of the motor drive, and a processor determines whether the motor drive is solid grounded, high-resistance grounded, or floating according to the leakage flux linkage value. In certain examples, the processor automatically turns the inverter off while the load resistor is connected between the single phase of the inverter output and the reference node, and automatically determines whether the motor drive is delta corner grounded according to the neutral-ground voltage.