A method for controlling an actuator system of a motor vehicle includes utilizing a model predictive control (MPC) module with an MPC solver to determine optimal positions of one or more actuators of the actuator system. The method further includes receiving a plurality of actuator system parameters, and triggering the MPC solver to generate one or more control commands from plurality of actuator system parameters. The method further includes applying a cost function to reduce a steady-state tracking error in the one or more control commands from the MPC solver and applying the one or more control commands to alter positions of the one or more actuators, and applying a penalty term to the steady-state predictions of positions of the plurality of actuators to limit a difference between a steady-state prediction of the actuator system and a solution from the MPC solver.