A heat pump has been considered as a thermal management unit for electric vehicles, including the heating and cooling of the cabin. However, the heat pump shows performance degradation at low outdoor temperatures or high compressor speeds. In this study, a R-134a heat pump for an electric vehicle was designed to improve system efficiency, by applying vapor injection with an internal heat exchanger. The heating performance characteristics of the vapor injection heat pump were analyzed at various compressor speeds and outdoor temperatures. The vapor injection heat pump showed 13.3% COP improvement over the non-injection heat pump, when the heating capacity was fixed at 5.2 kW. In addition, the heating capacity of the vapor injection system increased by 9.6%, as compared to the non-injection system.