In this brief, the exponential rotor position tracking/regulation problem for position-sensorless (nonsalient-pole surface) PMSMs with unknown constant load torque and stator resistance is addressed. The requirement of persistency of excitation conditions involving a non-definitely zero rotor speed reference is removed, owing to the design of an innovative (speed measurement-based) adaptive observer that relies on a local version of the persistency of excitation lemma and does not involve straightforward adaptations of previous ideas. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.