In order to effectively improve the composite regeneration performance of the diesel particulate filter in vehicle, a fuzzy gray correlation analysis model based on the composite regeneration influencing factors of diesel particulate filter was established using the cosine value of fuzzy membership and Euclidean distance formula. And, on the basis of experimental data from three‐dimensional computational fluid dynamics simulation, the fuzzy gray correlation analysis on important degree of characteristic indexes, which has influence on the composite regeneration performance of diesel particulate filter, was conducted. Moreover, the method of Lagrange function was used to solve the fuzzy gray affiliate degree based on the results of this fuzzy gray correlation analysis. The effectiveness indexes of overall performance of the diesel particulate filter composite regeneration time, regeneration peak temperature and regeneration efficiency were also obtained. The results showed that the amount of ceria‐based additive had the greatest influence on the regeneration time among all the characteristic performance indexes of diesel particulate filter composite regeneration. Similarly, it could be concluded that the exhaust oxygen concentration and exhaust temperature respectively had the greatest influence on the regeneration peak temperature and regeneration efficiency. In addition, the regeneration time had the greatest influence on the overall performance of diesel particulate filter composite regeneration while the regeneration efficiency took the second place and the influence of the regeneration peak temperature was the minimum. The results of this article showed theoretical significance and reference value for optimization analysis and control of diesel particulate filter composite regeneration process. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 35: 882–890, 2016