An electric motor (10) which includes an armature (11) with at least two armature phase pair windings (12) and salient pole rotor arrangement (15) having field windings (17) terminating in a selective electrical switch which determines the electrical continuity of said field windings (17). Also included is control means which is configured to regulate the magnetizing of the field winding (17) so that, at any given moment, one armature phase pair is usable for magnetizing the field winding while the other pair is responsible for torque production.