It's not unheard of for EVs to boost the battery voltage to a higher level before feeding into the inverter that powers the motor (e.g. https://www.eetimes.com/

It's not unheard of for EVs to boost the battery voltage to a higher level before feeding into the inverter that powers the motor (e.g. https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1281167 https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1281167). There are some advantages to running the inverter at higher voltage (cheaper switching devices and smaller wires), although I do find it surprising that this apparently sometimes offsets the cost of the boost converter. But I believe this is much less common with lithium ion batteries (~3.6 V/cell) than it was with NiMH (~1.2 V/cell).