The cascade multilevel converter requires the least number of main components among traditional multilevel converter. In this paper, comparison of main components between proposed and traditional converter is shown. In addition, a generalized symmetrical multilevel inverter is proposed. The proposed multilevel inverter can generate DC voltage levels similar to other topologies with less number of components. The proposed topology results in reduction of installation area and cost and has simplicity of control system. This converter has been used in an AC drive system. The operation and performance of the proposed generalized multilevel converter has been verified by the simulation results using SIMULINK/MATLAB. The simulation results show its capability in voltage generation and speed control.