This variant has a separate diesel engine providing auxiliary power and for electric train heating, replacing the steam generator in the original V 160.

The locomotives continued to be used after the formation of the Deutsche Bahn AG in 1994; the final DB Schenker unit was withdrawn in December 1997.

In the early 1960s, the then German Federal Railways (Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB) and the German railway industry developed the V 160 series (with which this class shares the majority of its design features), a diesel locomotive for use on medium-duty passenger and freight trains on main and secondary lines.

[9] At the end of 1970 and the beginning of 1971, the three prototypes set out from Mühldorf to the DB railway works in Regensburg, where six of the production locomotives were also stationed.

In 1993, the Class 217 locomotives were put into trial use with double-decker passenger coaches on the line connecting Mühldorf and Munich.

[12] They pull freight trains around their base in Mühldorf - destinations being Munich, Simbach, Landshut, Freilassing and the Wacker plant at Burghausen, often in multiple workings.

The last 217 (217 017) in use by DB Schenker was withdrawn on 19 December 2011 at Mühldorf Depot and it has been replaced by Euro 66 locomotives.