Due to the increasing significance of energy saving, multiple regulations have been introduced by countries or international organizations regarding the efficiency of electric drives, e.g. the IEC 1 60034-30 [1]. In the past, many companies replaced induction machines (IMs) by permanet magnet excited synchronous machines (PMSMs). This lead to a considerable increase of the efficiency, but due to the fluctuating price of the permanent magnets, especially of Neodymium-Iron-Boron(NdFeB)-magnets, the cost of PMSMs is hardly predictable. Therefore, many manufacturers are investigating in synchronous reluctance machines (SyncRM) now. In this article, the motor design for standardized rated power Prate = 3kW and nominal synchronous speed of nrate = 1500rpm is taken into consideration. Different motor topologies are analyzed regarding the trade-off between efficiency and material costs, including PMSMs and SyncRMs. This is done for two different cost scenarios. Finally, the cheapest designs that fulfill the IE-2 and IE-3 requirements, respectively, can be determined.