The conventional surface permanent magnet synchronous motor (SPMSM) model predictive torque control (MPTC) system uses all 7 voltage vectors generated by voltage source inverter (VSI), which causes large calculation burden. As zero voltage vector changes stator flux and torque very slowly, it is often used to maintain stator flux and torque when the torque error is small. The utilization rates of zero voltage vector in SPMSM MPTC system at different bands of torque error are analyzed. A simplified control strategy for SPMSM MPTC system based on band of torque error is proposed. When the torque error is within the band, the system outputs zero voltage vector directly without the MPTC calculation, otherwise 6 non-zero voltage vectors are used as candidate voltage vectors for MPTC. Simulation results show that the proposed SPMSM MDTC system works properly. Compared with the conventional MPTC, the control performance of the proposed system is almost the same, but the average switching frequency and the average MPTC calculation time decrease to 20% and 12.43% of those of the conventional one, respectively. Therefore, the simplified control strategy reduces the calculation burden dramatically.