Fuel cell electric vehicles have some noise problems due to its air processing unit which is required to feed the ambient air into the fuel cell stack. Discrete-frequency noises are radiated from a centrifugal blower due to rotor-stator interaction. Their fundamental frequency is the blade passing frequency, which is determined by the number of rotor blades and their rotating speed. To reduce such noises, multi-chamber perforated muffler has been designed. In this paper, in order to improve the transmission loss of a perforated muffler, the relationship between the impedance model of a perforated hole and its noise reduction performance is studied, and the applicability of a short-length perforated muffler to air processing unit of fuel cell system is described using acoustic simulation results and experimental data. The acoustic velocity vector across the neck of a perforated hole is very important design factor to optimize the transmission of an intake muffler. The suggested short-length perforated muffler is effective on discrete-frequency noises while keeping the volume of intake muffler minimized.