Method and System for Regulating Electric Drive System According to Predicted Temperature of Inverter Current Sensor to Prevent Overheating

An electric drive system includes a controller and an inverter having a switch and a current sensor. The controller reduces power output of the inverter while a sensed temperature of the switch, a sensed current from the inverter, and parameter values of the current sensor are indicative of a predicted temperature of the current sensor being greater than a threshold to maintain inverter temperature lower than the threshold. The parameter values are obtainable from a thermal model of the current sensor. The thermal model is derived from testing a test version of the inverter under different drive cycles in which for each drive cycle a set of information is recorded including a sensed temperature of a switch of the inverter test version, a sensed current output from the inverter test version, and a sensed temperature of a current sensor of the inverter test version.