An electric motor-driven rotary disc cutter module for a cutterbar in an agricultural harvester. In one embodiment, each rotary disc module includes an electric motor driver. Individual cutterhead modules are staggered fore and aft along the cutterbar to provide continuous cutting across the lateral width of the cutterbar without requiring synchronized rotation of the cutterheads. Individual speed and/or rotational direction adjustment of each cutterhead enables optimized crop cutting performance and/or crop movement within the header. A control system may be included to monitor performance and manage individual operation of the cutterhead modules. In a second embodiment, a pair of cutterheads are powered by a single electric motor wherein rotational input for the second cutterhead is transferred by a simple geartrain. The pair of cutterheads is combined into a modular arrangement with the modules being staggered fore and aft on the cutterbar to provide a continuous lateral cutting swath.
