A novel rotor speed estimation method using Model Reference Adaptive Control(MRAC) is proposed to improve the performance of a sensorless vector controller. In the proposed mettled, the stator current is used as the model variable for estimating the speed. In conventional MRAC methods, the relation between the two model errors and the speed estmation error is unclear. Yet, in the proposed method, the stator current error is represented as a function of the first degree for the error value in the speed estimation. Therefore, the proposed method can produce a fast speed estimation and is robust to the parameters error In addition, the proposed method of offers a considerable improvement in the performance of a sensorless vector controller at a low speed. The superiority of the proposed method is verified by simulation and experiment in a low speed region and at a zero-speed.