Electrified vehicle with oriented parking mechanism

A method comprising:

• aligning a parking gear having a plurality of external teeth configured to selectively engage a parking pawl between adjacent ones of the external teeth and secured for rotation with an output shaft of an electric machine, relative to a magnetic pole pair of a rotor of the electric machine to minimize occurrences of the parking pawl being engaged between adjacent ones of the external teeth during dead time periods of an inverter supplying power from a traction battery to the electric machine.

A vehicle powertrain comprising:

• an electric machine having a rotor with a plurality of magnetic pole pairs, the rotor secured for rotation with an output shaft;
• and
• a parking gear having external teeth configured to selectively engage a parking pawl between adjacent ones of the external teeth, the parking gear secured for rotation with the output shaft and angularly oriented relative to the magnetic pole pairs of the rotor such that the parking pawl overlaps at least a portion of an associated one of the external teeth for a plurality of rotor positions associated with dead time periods of an inverter configured to power the electric machine.