Abstract: Proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell technology has already made tremendous advances. However,
performance, cost, and durability remain the key problems before PEM fuel cells can be successfully commercialized. This
paper is a review of current status in the study of PEM fuel cells and the existing challenges for their use in electrical vehicle
(EV) applications,basedon a survey of the published literature. In reviewing the current status, we introduce presentstate-ofthe-
art PEM fuel cell technology for EV applications and look at key technical achievements. PEM fuel cell research has made
particularly significant progress in improving performance, cost, and durability, primarily focusing on the main components of
the stack and system. Nonetheless, commercialization of fuel cell electrical vehicle (FCEV) applications is still confronted with
performance, cost, and durability hurdles, hindering the achievement of the 2010/2015 US DOE (Department of Energy) targets.
The maintenance of fuel cell vehicles as another component of their future commercializationwas also reviewed.

Key words: electrical vehicle (EV), proton exchange membrane (PEM)fuel cells, stack and system, performance, cost, durability