This paper addresses the problem of preserving the nominal performance of a conventional cascade controller for electric motor drives in the presence of parameter uncertainties and external disturbances. Practical reduced-order proportional-integral (PI) observers are incorporated with predesigned PI controllers in order to enhance the robust performance of current and speed controllers. A unified analysis based on the singular perturbation theory is presented to confirm the desired approximation of the augmented system with the PI observers to the nominal closed-loop system. The validity of the proposed dual observer-based control scheme is tested via computer simulations and experiments using a dc motor system. Both results verify that the proposed controller can be used effectively to recover the nominal performance of the conventional cascade scheme for electric motor drives.