A method and apparatus for electrical energy transfer between a pair of series connected batteries coupled between positive and negative DC rails of a power inverter operatively connected to a plurality of stator phase windings of a stator winding of a motor may include coupling a midpoint of the pair of series connected batteries to the stator winding of the motor, and controlling the power inverter to operate the power inverter and the stator winding as a switched-mode power converter to charge at least one of the stator phase windings from one of the pair of series connected batteries and to discharge the at least one of the stator phase windings to the other of the pair of series connected batteries.