This paper presents a new three-phase five-level inverter for direct torque control (DTC) drives application. The advantages of the inverter are reduced output harmonics, switching losses and number of power switches. The multilevel PWM modulation method as well as output voltage analysis based on symmetrical sampling are presented. The proposed inverter is compared with the conventional inverter in terms of its current's total harmonics distortion (THD). Experimental results of DTC drive of permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) are also presented for verification of its proposed function.