An evaluation model of PEM fuel cell engine (FCE) performance is developed, which provides a new method for a quantitative assessment of FCE performance. Some basic properties and their sub-performance indexes are proposed to evaluate overall performance by analyzing FCE properties, and then the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) theory is used to obtain weighted values of the indexes. Proper scoring functions are established to convert the index values into scores and finally we get an overall score of FCE performance. An example for a real FCE evaluation is also given to illustrate the method. Copyright (C) 2011, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.