One of the most important components of an electric vehicle is the drive motor. Induction motors are often used for this purpose. During operation of these motors, power loss occurs, especially at high speeds. This power loss corresponds, among other things, to the sum of winding losses, iron core losses and mechanical losses. The power losses generate heat, which causes the temperature in the rotor and stator to rise. The increase in temperature of the components inside the motor can lead to premature wear and fatigue failure. To prevent overheating, the motors are air- or water-cooled. Water cooling can be achieved, for example, by means of jacket cooling. Here, the heat generated is dissipated directly by forced convection. However, the cooling jacket makes it difficult to determine the temperature inside the motor. Determining these temperatures is necessary to protect the motor from premature fatigue. The temperatures inside the motor during operation are of particular interest for test bench trials. This article presents a thermal transient modelling of a water-cooled electric motor for electric vehicle applications based on test bench experiments. This article presents a thermal transient model of a water-cooled electric motor for electric vehicle applications based on test bench trials. The model provides insights into temperature profiles inside the electric motor, which can be used for testing electric motors on test benches. This allows the effects of changes in test bench parameters to be identified in advance, which is a useful tool for test bench engineers. Using ANSYS Motor CAD software, a simulation is created based on real test bench parameters and a real test program. The electric machine created in the simulation resembles the geometry of the real drive machine on the test bench. The model created is adjusted using the test bench parameters coolant and ambient temperature, speed of the electric machine and surface temperatures. The special feature here is the determination of the surface temperature using thermography. A thermal imaging camera is used to create infrared images of the electric machine during operation, with each pixel corresponding to a temperature measurement point. This allows significantly more temperatures to be recorded than, for example, with thermocouples. The purpose of the work is to use simulation to determine the temperatures inside the machine based on surface temperatures measured using thermography.