A high efficiency drive technique for synchronous reluctance motors (SynRM) using a neural network (NN) is presented in this paper. High efficiency drive condition depends on the mathematical model of SynRM. A NN is employed as an adaptive model of SynRM. The proposed high efficiency drive technique does not require an accurate mathematical model of SynRM. Moreover, the proposed method shows robustness against machine parameter variations because the training algorithm of the NN is executed on-line. The usefulness of the proposed method is confirmed through experimentation.