A drive device for a vehicle, in particular a rail vehicle, includes a set of drive units each having at least one electric traction motor and a power generation unit which is provided for generating power for the traction motor, and a set of motor contactor units each being assigned to a traction motor. In order to provide a type of drive device which has a high availability in the event of a failure, has few structural elements and can be produced economically, at least one motor contactor unit includes at least one switching device which is connected between the power generation unit for the associated traction motor and a feed point.