In PEMFCs components, the bipolar plate is the most important part due to its high proportion of the cost, volume, and mass of PEMFC (45 %, 80 %, and 50 %).Because of the material and process problems of the bipolar plate, the volume and mass of the traditional graphite PEMFC are relatively large, which increases the weight of the vehicle, reduces the available space of the vehicle chassis, and affects the performance of the PEMFC vehicle. Therefore, the development of a lightweight, low-cost, simple preparation process for the bipolar plate is of great significance to promote its commercial application.The metal bipolar plate has attracted much attention in the PEMFC field because of its low cost, good mechanical properties, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and relatively easy-to-control volume. However, in the PEMFC environment, the metal bipolar plate is easy to form a passivation film, which leads to an increase in its contact resistance. Therefore, improving the corrosion resistance of metal bipolar plates and maintaining good conductivity are the main focus of current research on PEMFC.Our review summarized the graphite, composite, and metal bipolar plate preparation process or surface modification methods, and discussed the advantages and disadvantages of bipolar plate or surface-covered carbide coatings, metal coatings, and nitride coatings. in addition, we compared the corrosion resistance and interfacial contact resistance performance of these coatings under the PEMFC environment.