For the commercialization of fuel cell powered vehicle, it is highly important to improve the performance and efficiency of an automotive polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system. The performance and efficiency of PEMFC systems are significantly influenced by their operating conditions. Among these conditions, the system operating pressure is considered as the one of the main factors. In this study, to investigate the effects of operating pressure on the performance and efficiency of automotive PEMFC systems, two types of high-pressure operating PEMFC systems adopting two different compressors (i. e. different performance maps) are modeled by using MATLAB/Simulink environment. The PEMFC system efficiency and parasitic compressor power are mainly analyzed and compared for the two types of high-pressure operating PEMFC systems under the same system net power conditions. It is expected that this kind of study can contribute to provide basic insight into the operating strategies of high-pressure operating PEMFC systems for automotive use.