An electric motor drive unit includes a winding switching unit that switches a configuration of windings of an electric motor, a winding switching instruction unit that generates an instruction signal for the winding switching unit, and a winding configuration retention unit to which the instruction signal generated by the winding switching instruction unit is input, and if the input instruction signal has a first value, outputs a signal corresponding to the input instruction signal to the winding switching unit, and if the input instruction signal has a second value different from the first value, continues outputting a signal that has been output to the winding switching unit before the reception of the second value, the first value indicating an instruction on the configuration of the windings.