Method for manufacturing a stator of a rotary electric machine

A method of manufacturing a stator includes: (a) preparing a stator core and electric wires; (b) assembling together the stator core and the electric wires; (c) welding corresponding pairs of the electric wires to form a stator coil, wherein for each corresponding pair of the electric wires, end portions of the electric wires are radially bent toward each other to have distal end surfaces thereof abutting each other at a position axially outside an annular coil end part of the stator coil, the distal end surfaces are welded together to form a weld between the end portions, and the end portions together make up a crossover part that extends to cross over the coil end part; and (d) deforming, for each corresponding pair of the electric wires, the end portions so as to reduce an axial distance between the coil end part and the crossover part.