An electric drive system is connected to a power battery pack to drive a motor, the motor includes an exciting winding, and the electric drive system includes a bus, a three-level inverter circuit, an electric excitation circuit, and a controller. The bus includes a positive bus and a negative bus. The three-level inverter circuit includes a first bus capacitor and a second bus capacitor. The first bus capacitor is connected between the positive bus and a bus midpoint, and the second bus capacitor is connected between the negative bus and the bus midpoint. A first input terminal of the electric excitation circuit is connected in parallel to the first bus capacitor, a second input terminal of the electric excitation circuit is connected in parallel to the second bus capacitor, and an output terminal of the electric excitation circuit is connected to the exciting winding of the motor.