In this work, the performances of bare metallic plate, traditional graphite plate and metallic bipolar plate modified with carbon-based coating used in the proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) were compared; the latest achievements of carbon-based coatings in improving the conductivity and corrosion resistance of metallic bipolar plates were reviewed; and issues such as performance degradation and limited life of carbon-based coatings were discussed, especially after long-term operation in PEMFCs environment. By analyzing the factors that affect the performance of carbon-based coatings, it was found that systematic researches on the relationship between microstructure of carbon-based coating and its performance were insufficient, leading to an unclear damage and degradation mechanism of a-C carbon coating/ metallic bipolar plate. The research progress of modified carbon-based coating materials for PEMFCs metal plates at home and abroad was mainly discussed, including improving the coating performance by adjusting the microstructure of carbon-based coatings (a-C); preparing metal-doped carbon coating (a-C:Me) by combing theoretical calculation with practice; solving the poor adhesion, high pressure stress and other issues between coating and special metallic matrix, design multi-layer structures to reduce penetrability defects. The failure mechanism of several kinds of coatings was discussed and the development trend of carbon-based coating technology for metallic plate modification was prospected.