An electric motor (2) for a clothes washing machine including the motor and a drive, the motor having a stator (25) held outboard of a frame carrying bearings (37, 38) in which a shaft (11) rotates, the shaft carrying the rotor (21) outboard of the stator (25), and permanent magnets (17) on an inner face of the rotor. The stator (25) is formed as an annular helical yoke edgewise wound from a strip of magnetic material and having an inner face and an outer face, the strip having pole pieces (8) formed integrally therewith extending from one edge of the strip and the strip being edgewise wound whereby the pole pieces coincide in stacked groups to form a plurality of poles arranged at equally spaced intervals extending radially outwardly from the outer face of the yoke. Energizable stator windings (26) are wound directly on the poles (8) of the stator and are adapted to be energized through an electronic commutation circuit (65,66) and the rotor (21) is mounted for rotation exteriorly of and relative to the stator, the rotor comprising a backing ring (16) of magnetic material and a series of permanent magnets (17) held at spaced-apart intervals on an inner surface of the backing ring (16) and opposing the poles (8) of the stator (25).