To provide an electric vacuum cleaner capable of quickly switching the normal and reverse rotation of a motor while surely preventing the generation of a surge current when switching the normal and reverse rotation drive of the motor and realizing the above quick switching by simple and inexpensive constitution.

When the connecting destination of the contact 24c of a changeover switch 24 is switched from the contact 24a (24b) to the contact 24b (24a), a changeover control part 37 (38) instantaneously stops the drive of a relay coil 39 (40) and the changeover control part 38 (37) delays the drive start of the relay coil 40 (39) for stipulated time. Thus, the changeover from the normal rotation (normal rotation energizing time) of the motor 41 to the reverse rotation (reverse rotation energizing time) or from the reverse rotation to the normal rotation is performed through the stipulated time of the state where the drive of both relay coils 39 and 40 is stopped (the short-circuited state of the motor 41).