•Designed a versatile GNSS simulator for multi-mode experiment, along with its corresponding control unit and experimental bench.•Quantitatively analyzed seeding quality of five motors in different seeding modes and speeds.•Analyzed the applicability of five motors and future research directions.•Basic characteristics of an electric-drive seed-metering system dedicated to seeding were presented. The Electric-drive Seed-metering System, crucial for precision seeding, has been enhanced by digital and electronic controls, improving efficiency and reducing seed waste. However, Electric-drive Seed-metering System’s research faces challenges like the absence of quantitative motor performance comparisons and outdated evaluation protocols. Despite advances beyond GNSS-based seeding to include techniques like Variable-Rate Seeding and Automatic Section Control, traditional tests fail to reflect actual seeding conditions accurately, making it challenging to precisely identify the issues present in the system, thereby creating obstacles for its optimization, making it hard to enhance seed utilization during the seeding process and improve the quality of it. In response to these issues, five commonly used motors with similar performance were selected to construct different ESS in combination with air-suction seed-metering device. A GNSS simulator was designed using the STM32F103C8T6 chip, capable of fully simulating different operational scenarios. The STM32F407ZGT6 was used in conjunction with a photoelectric seed sensor to design the main controller, allowing real-time monitoring of seeding status data via an LCD display. A torque sensor array was also incorporated to assess the seeding performance of different motors under various torque disturbances. Various experiment indices such as the quality index, seed-spacing coefficient of variation were employed for a comprehensive and systematic evaluation of the different ESS. And after the overall experiments, ANOVA and Tukey tests were employed to further quantify and validate the operational states of different motors under various modes and speeds. In fixed speed mode, at speeds up to 15 km·h−1, open-loop stepper motor ceased operation, while other motors averaged an 92.83 % quality index, led by closed-loop stepper motor at 95.37 %. Under speed with noise, closed-loop stepper motor 's quality index and seed-spacing coefficient of variation worsened by only 4.06 % and 10.66 %, outperforming others. In turn compensation mode, closed-loop brushed motor and BLDC with hall encoder recorded lower quality index of 85.18 % and 86.70 %, respectively, compared to BLDC with optical encoder’s 97.02 %. With Automatic Section Control active, closed-loop brushed motor showed a marked increase in seed errors at higher speeds, whereas closed-loop stepper motor maintained high accuracy with only 1 missed seed and 7 multiple seeds. The results indicate that brushed motors perform worse in high-speed response and low-speed stability compared to stepper motors. Open-loop stepper motors operate stably but are not suitable for high-speed seeding. BLDC motors are not the best choice for electric-drive seeding in terms of price and precision, and if the disturbance resistance of closed-loop stepper motors can be improved, these motors have the potential for widespread application in the future.