This paper deals with the analytical and numerical analysis of the flux density distribution in the slotted air gap of permanent magnet motors with surface mounted tangentially magnetized permanent magnets. Two methods for magnetostatic field calculations are developed. The first one is an analytical method in which the effect of stator slots is taken into account by modulating the magnetic field distribution by the complex relative air gap permeance. The second one is a numerical method using 2-D finite element analysis with consideration of Dirichlet and anti-periodicity (periodicity) boundary conditions and Lagrange Multipliers for simulation of movement. The results obtained by the analytical method are compared to the results of finite-element analysis.