This paper presents a comparative study of two distinct modulation strategies applied to a permanent magnet synchronous motor drive, under inverter faulty operating conditions. A rotor field oriented control is used and a performance evaluation is conducted by comparing a hysteresis current control with a space vector modulation technique. Three different operating conditions are considered: normal situation, a single power switch open-circuit fault and a single-phase open-circuit fault. In order to compare the drive performance under these conditions, global results are presented concerning the analysis of some key parameters such as motor efficiency, power factor, electromagnetic torque and currents rms and distortion values.