Insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) are the critical components for electrical vehicle inverter. This paper introduced a general approach of lifetime evaluation of IGBT modules for electric vehicles mission-profile. A general evaluation procedure were provided and discussed. The driving cycle FTP-75 was used as an input to the lifetime evaluation procedure. The lifetime of IGBT modules in electrical vehicle inverters could be obtained according to this procedure. Cases applying this lifetime evaluation method were presented for selection of IGBT modules and design of reliability tests for electrical vehicle inverters. The 760 hours power cycling test was equivalent of the duty time 30 years for electric vehicles mission-profile.