Taking a direct-drive volume control (DDVC) electro-hydraulic servo system as the research object and aiming at the problems of the servo motor torque fluctuation, high-precision system pressure control, and dynamic response of the system, based on traditional motor direct torque control (DTC), a motor direct torque control method based on a sliding-mode variable structure is proposed to control the system pressure. The motor torque loop is part of the inner control loop and has a rapid dynamic response speed, resulting in higher pressure control accuracy. A nonlinear mathematical model was established for the DDVC electro-hydraulic servo system. The switch meter hysteresis controller in the traditional DTC system was replaced with space vector pulse-width modulation technology. Then, the PID control module in space vector modulation technology was replaced with high-order sliding-mode variable-structure control. Through the coupling relationship between the electric machine and the constant-displacement pump, the pressure can be controlled with high precision using motor torque control. Finally, using the MATLAB/Simulink simulation platform and the DDVC electro-hydraulic servo system simulation model, the proposed theoretical approach to torque control was verified on the basis of simulations and experiments, and the performance with regard to pressure control in the hydraulic system was observed. The simulation and experimental results show that the designed torque control is able to effectively reduce the motor torque fluctuation and improve the dynamic response characteristics of the system. The system pressure control is superior to traditional pressure control methods based on speed regulation, and it has higher control accuracy and a better dynamic response.