A reluctance motor is described in which stator coils are driven with sinusoidal, or substantially sinusoidal, waveforms. Preferably, the spread angle of the stator poles is less that the spread angle of the rotor poles. More preferably, the spread angles of the stator poles &thgr;S and the rotor poles &thgr;r are set such that &thgr;S is approximately equal to 2&pgr;/(m·Nr) and &thgr;r is about (&thgr;S+&pgr;/Nr)/2≦&thgr;r≦(&pgr;/Nr), respectively, wherein Nr is the number rotor poles and m is the number of phases of electric current. By supplying a sinusoidal, or substantially sinusoidal-like, driving waveform to the stator coils, torque becomes relatively constant and does not depend on the angular position of rotation of the rotor. Therefore, torque ripple is effectively decreased.