Conventional electric motors instead employ magnetic attraction and repulsion, and require high current at low voltages.
Today the electrostatic motor finds frequent use in micro-mechanical (MEMS) systems where their drive voltages are below 100 volts, and where moving, charged plates are far easier to fabricate than coils and iron cores.
[1] In 2004, researchers at University of California, Berkeley, developed rotational bearings based upon multiwall carbon nanotubes.
By attaching a gold plate (with dimensions of the order of 100 nm) to the outer shell of a suspended multiwall carbon nanotube (like nested carbon cylinders), they are able to electrostatically rotate the outer shell relative to the inner core.
These nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) represent a promising direction in miniaturization and may find their way into commercial applications in the future.