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Cascaded multilevel inverters (MLIs) have been proposed that utilise transformers in the basic unit. The proposed inverters primarily serve to step up the input voltages in addition to using lower number of components in comparison to traditional MLIs. In order to generate all voltage levels (even and odd) at the output, three different algorithms are proposed to determine the magnitude of DC voltage sources and transformer turn ratios. Also, the basic inverter unit was further developed and two new flexible MLI structures have been obtained. The developed structures increase the input voltage with no need for an additional boost converter. A reduction in the number of power switches, the peak inverse voltage, and the number of DC voltage sources are other advantages of the proposed topologies. Also, a simple cost model was developed and the dimensionless cost coefficient was determined. The overall cost of the proposed MLIs was compared to the similar MLIs from the literature. It was shown that the proposed MLI decrease the overall cost of the system if the cost coefficient is selected appropriately. To verify the performance of the proposed topologies simulated by the mathematical model; several lab-scale inverters were built and tested and good agreement was achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]