© 2015 The Institution of Engineering and Technology. Practical applications of switched reluctance motors (SRMs) require control techniques that can solve large torque ripple and large current ripple in power supply. To promote development of these techniques, a simple Lagrangian formulation for flux-based nonlinear SRM models is proposed. This formulation can be analysed in combination with Lagrangian circuit models of motor drivers. The properness of the formulation is supported by an example of the analysis of the operation of a simple SRM driving system.