Performance of the hydrogen fuel cell system in a compact special vehicle is mainly influenced by the thermal characteristics of heat release through air flow with electrochemical mechanisms. In this study, numerical analysis has been carried out to investigate air flow and heat transfer characteristics near the fuel cell system for various operating conditions. The cooling characteristics around the radiator system depend on air flow generated by vehicle movement, and the effects of vehicle-induced air flow on the velocity and temperature distributions within the heat release system were examined. These results showed that there are quite complicated air flow around the radiator and fan near the fuel cell system in the vehicle cargo area, and its efficient flow field resulted in cooling performance improvement with driving speed. Hence overall heat release characteristics of the hydrogen fuel cell system are strongly associated with various air flow behavior formed around the compact special vehicle including cargo area.