A novel consequent pole in-wheel motor (CPM) with surface-mounted permanent magnet (PM) for electric vehicles is investigated in this paper. The finite- element analysis (FEA) is carried out to study the electromagnetic characteristics of this kind of motor, also the structural features and design rules of the motor are discussed through the analysis of the air gap flux density and leakage flux. The influence of the structural parameters to the leakage flux is compared between the conventional PM in-wheel motor and CPM. The simulation results show that CPM has some interesting electromagnetic characteristics different from the conventional PM in-wheel motor, which might be beneficial for its further development.