Developing a permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) for direct-drive electric vehicle (EV) has challenges such as obtaining high torque density and low torque ripple. The PMSM should have high pole numbers owing to low-speed operation, thereby increasing the use of rare earth magnets and cost. Therefore, in this article a consequent pole (CP) rotor topology is proposed in which the permanent magnet (PM) volume is reduced when compared with conventional surface PMSM (SPMSM). However, replacing south poles in an SPMSM with induced steel poles can increase torque ripple and reduce torque density. In order to improve torque density in a CP PMSM, structural modifications such as multilayer windings and non-ferromagnetic barriers have been proposed in the literature. These modifications increased the torque density while increasing the torque ripple. Therefore, this article proposes a novel two-level optimization method based on gradient descent algorithm, to address the challenges of improving torque density and reducing torque ripple simultaneously in a CP PMSM. Initially, an expression for the magnet pole arc angle is derived for CP PMSM based on magnetic equivalent circuit. A two-level optimization is performed on a baseline CP PMSM to determine the optimal magnet pole arc. The torque production and torque ripples of the optimized design are validated by simulation and experimental results.