Electric propulsion systems, and methods of operating and implementing same, are disclosed herein. In one example embodiment, an electric propulsion system includes an electric motor, a motor drive coupled to the electric motor, and a thermal management subsystem. The electric motor is a permanent magnet synchronous motor, and the motor drive includes each of an inverter including a plurality of wide bandgap semiconductor field effect transistors (FETs), and a controller coupled at least indirectly to the FETs and configured to control the FETs by way of pulse width modulation (PWM) control. Additionally, at least a first portion of the electric motor and at least a second portion of the motor drive are cooled by the thermal management subsystem.