The aim of this paper is to spread the sliding-mode control design technique on the new class of the ac drives: an induction motor fed by a three-level voltage-source inverter (3LVSI). A comprehensive investigation of possible drive ldquovariable structuresrdquo was carried out. Based on this analysis, an original two-step design procedure allows the use of the ldquoclassicalrdquo result of sliding-mode theory for the real variable structure system with more than 2m variable structures ( m is the control space order). Based on this design procedure, the original control algorithm that includes a choice condition for 3LVSI input dc voltage and a switch table for the 3LVSI semiconductor switches are designed. The performance of the considered control structure has been examined by simulation.