Most drills are brush type motors -- AC/DC, not AC induction motors.
For the brush type, they work fairly well.
For induction motors, they work very poorly at frequencies much off from the design frequency (60 Hz US, 50 Hz UK -- both are close enough so they can be used mostly interchangeably as long as there is enough iron in the motor to handle the slightly lower frequency.
For a VFD (frequency synthesis via PWM) to work well, you want a true three phase motor.
Enjoy, DoN.