In this work, the 2-pole 5 kW line-starting permanent magnet (PM) motors are designed and the new calculation methods are constructed.The basic theories of the asynchronous transient state, the synchronizing state, and the synchronous steady state are described. Concerning the synchronizing state, the index parameters for pulling into synchronism - the critical load torque and the critical slip - are introduced, which enables one to quantitatively evaluate the synchronization capability of the line-starting PM motor. Based upon the above perceptions, the basic designs and configurations of the line-starting PM motors are presented. By using the 2-D finite element analysis (FEA), the dynamic and steady-state characteristics of the line-starting PM motors - the non-salient pole machine and the salient-pole machine - are investigated. The analysis results are compared with the measured results of the prototype motors, and its validity is verified. Especially, the availability of the salient-pole machine designed in chapter 2 is experimentally confirmed.