Objective In permanent magnet synchronous motor PMSM control systems conventional PI control suffers from poor anti-interference capability while traditional sliding mode control exhibits significant chattering. Moreover neither approach can effectively optimize both system chattering and convergence speed simultaneously. To address these limitations a nonsingular terminal sliding mode control based on a variable exponential reaching law is designed and predictive current control is introduced in the current loop. Methods A nonsingular terminal sliding mode controller based on a variable exponential reaching law was designed to replace the PI controller in the speed loop. Since the discontinuity of the sign function would cause system chattering a saturation function was introduced to replace it. Secondly in practical motor operation the system might be affected by load disturbances and other factors. To enhance the system?? s robustness against disturbances an extended observer was designed to predict disturbances in real-time and compensate the output current. In the current loop deadbeat current predictive control was employed and a disturbance observer was introduced to mitigate issues related to parameter mismatches and delays. Results A PMSM control system model was built in MATLAB / Simulink. The simulation results show that compared with the traditional methods the improved method has an overshoot of 0% the system chattering is mitigated and the system?? s robustness against disturbances is significantly enhanced. Compared with the control method reported in the literature the proposed method shortens the settling time required to reach the target speed by approximately 0. 005 s and accelerates the stabilization response to speed variations by about 0. 003 s. Conclusion Simulation results verify that compared with conventional and literature-reported control methods the designed control method delivers superior acceleration performance enhanced disturbance rejection quicker recovery from disturbances and effective suppression of system chattering.