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With electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) set to grow in the coming years, design optimizations of electric motors for automotive applications are receiving more attention. Under demanding duty cycles, the moving part within a motor, the rotor, may experience high and varying stresses, which may lead to fatigue failure. Therefore, engineers are facing challenges in designing efficient and durable motors, especially for interior permanent-magnet (IPM) motors, in which the rotors have embedded magnets with small "bridges" of laminated electrical steel to keep the magnets in place. Cost-effective stators and rotors are made from electrical steels, with high magnetic permeability and low power losses. However, national and international standards for electrical steels do not specify mechanical properties. Steel producers would normally state typical mechanical properties only, and no fatigue properties are available in published literature.