PWM control of multi-phase inverter is one of the key technologies in the ships electrical propulsion. In this paper, a novel discontinuous space vector PWM (DSVPWM) method of multiphase inverter is proposed by arranging the two zero vectors skillfully. Comparing with the continuous space vector PWM (CSVPWM) method the DSVPWM use only one zero vector in one switching period, so the switching loss is only four fifths of the CSVPWM. However, the output target line voltages of DSVPWM are still sine wave, the harmonic performance is excelled that of traditional SVPWM (TSVPWM) therefore. Several classic DSVPWM realization methods are given, and the operation characteristic, adapted load types and total harmonic distortion rate of them are analyzed and simulated.Index Terms--multiphase inverter; discontinuous space vector PWM; zero vector; total harmonic distortion rate