Due to the effort designing high efficient electric vehicles, high speed traction drives are frequently used. Nowadays different winding topologies, rotor shapes and cooling concepts are studied to enlarge efficiency and power density. The application of a compact multi-phase winding permanent magnet excited synchronous machine including an active rotor cooling system provides opportunities to meet the high requirements of a traction drive. This contribution focuses on the construction and characteristics of the engineered six-phase motor and the potential to increase the machine's performance by the integrated rotor cooling system.