In this work, a high-performance polymer electrolyte membrane based on sulfonated polyether ether ketone (SPEEK) loaded with zirconium oxide nanofibres (ZrN) was fabricated. ZrN with an average diameter of 182 nm were prepared by pyrolysing electrospun polyacrylonitrile fibres embedded with a zirconium precursor. The weight percentage of added ZrN and the relevant performance of the hybrid membrane (e.g., proton conductivity, methanol permeability and fuel cell performance) were experimentally determined and verified. It was found that the SPEEK-ZrN hybrid membrane exhibited sufficient proton conductivity (25.9 mS cm(-1)), low methanol permeability (1.64 x 10(-7) cm(2) s(-1)) and superior selectivity (15.8 x 10(4) S s cm(-3)) at room temperature. Compared to a pure SPEEK membrane, the SPEEK-ZrNT-1.5 membrane showed 1.3 and 1.7 times higher current density and power density, respectively. (C) 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.