Italian transport company NTV ordered 25 trains in 2008 (classified as AGV 575) with services beginning in 2012.

According to Alstom, the advantages of the AGV are: increased seating area per train length (compared to a single-deck TGV); safety and maintenance advantages of the Jacobs bogie articulation design as well as higher energy efficiency from permanent-magnet synchronous motors.

Initial specifications were for a train with distributed traction (total power 7.2 MW), seating 359 in a train 180 m (590 ft 7 in) long, with a version including eddy current brakes with a top speed of 350 km/h (220 mph), and a tilting version with a top speed of 320 km/h (200 mph).

[11][14] The initial AGV design incorporated a number of new features: an electrically activated active suspension (in the transverse direction to movement), used to limit oscillations between car and bogie; and eddy current brakes, fitted to the end bogies.

The transformers, which weigh 6.5 tonnes, are fitted underneath the end cars, since the presence of the leading bogie allows the mass to be distributed over three instead of two axles.

The 2005 specifications allowed a wider (3 m (9 ft 10 in)) carriage than the TGV, with a correspondingly shorter coach length.

[1] The train also incorporates a carbon composite as a structural element, forming a U beam which supports the carriage body end on the secondary suspension.

[3][n 1] In January 2008 NTV (Italy) ordered twenty-five eleven-car trains for €650 million for use on the Italian rail network.

[16] The prototype Pégase AGV was unveiled in February 2008,[7] by which time Alstom had invested approximately €100 million in the development program.

Two coaches were constructed; a driving and an intermediate cab, with both trailer and motor bogies; for testing the units were attached to a four car TGV Reseau set.

[2][3] In late 2005 Alstom began the process of constructing a 7-car AGV demonstration train fitted with PMSMs, with half the bogies powered.

[10] The demonstration vehicle, named Pégase (Prototype Evolutif Grande vitesse Automotrice Standard Européen) was assembled at Alstom's La Rochelle plant, with bogies built at Alstom's Le Creusot plant.

[22] Alstom's first, and for the moment, only customer for the AGV was Italian company Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori (NTV).

[29] The Italo NTV trains feature internet connectivity, TV and a cinema for passengers in three classes.

[33] The traction locomotive design was thought to be aimed in part at orders from SNCF as early as 2014/5 or post 2015.

[35] In October 2015 the technology was grouped into the series of Avelia branded products for Alstom's high-speed trains, consisting of the existing Pendolino, Euroduplex and AGV offers.

The cooperation with the SNCF led into a contract for 100 Avelia Horizon double deck trains in August 2018, which are based on TGV Duplex.

Alstom donated an intermediate car of the Pégase demonstrator to the National College for High Speed Rail (NCHSR) in Britain.

The car was moved from Alstom's La Rochelle plant to NCHSR's Doncaster campus in early December 2018, where it will be used in courses.