On account of small size and light weight, a high-speed machine is regarded as a key technology for many future applications of drive systems. In high-speed applications, permanent magnet synchronous motors have a number of merits such as high efficiency and high power density. Therefore, they are suitable for driving the air-blower of a fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) where space and energy savings are critical. Particularly, a surface-mounted permanent magnet synchronous motor (SPMSM) of them is mainly used as a high-speed machine. However, the motor has a fatal flaw due to a retaining can to maintain the mechanical integrity of a rotor assembly. The can results in the increase of magnetic air-gap length in the SPMSM. Thus, in this paper, an interior permanent magnet synchronous motor (IPMSM) is applied in order to drive the air-blower of FCEV instead of the SPMSM, and the experimental results of two models are compared to verify the capability of the IPMSM for high-speed applications.