In the early 1970s, steadily increasing performance requirements prompted the Austrian locomotive industry to develop a completely new high-performance electric locomotive using thyristor technology. The SGP, responsible for the mechanical part, and the companies BBC (now ABB), Elin and Siemens for the electrical equipment, handed over two prototype machines (1044.01 in December 1974 and 1044.02 in February 1975) to the ÖBB for testing at their own expense in the mid-1970s. These universally applicable limit performance locomotives with an output of 5,280 kW and a maximum permissible speed of 160 km/h were largely convincing during their testing on the Southern Railway and the Western Railway, between Vienna and Salzburg. The first series order was placed in April 1976. According to EU Dir.