The accuracy of control systems applied to motors is influenced by uncertainties and abrupt variations of the load and system parameters. Some robust control strategies have been proposed in the literature for responding to disturbances and uncertainties, parametric variations, and non-linearities, adding complex control rules and considerable computational efforts. Therefore, this paper presents the application of a sliding mode control method based on a washout filter (SMC-w) for speed control in a permanent magnet DC motor. In addition, the dynamic behavior of the SMC-w is evaluated under changes in the reference speed and load torque. The response of the control system under variations of the speed reference signal and load torque were studied. The results were contrasted with conventional proportional integral derivative (PID) control to evaluate the efficiency and improvement of the SMC-w. The qualitative shape of the transient response of the speed and current concerning changes in the reference speed is symmetric for the SMC-w controller, but the values of overshoot, settling time, and steady-state error are different. This technique has a great potential for industrial application as it controls efficiently with low computational cost and a simple design, which benefits its implementation in practical environments.