The E.626 class is the result of a requirement issued in 1926 by the Ferrovie dello Stato (FS, Italian Railways) for a new locomotive to be used under the new 3,000 V DC line being built between Foggia and Benevento.

[note 2] The design was carried out by the team of Giuseppe Bianchi, the "founder" of modern Italian railways, at the FS Traction and Material Service in Florence.

The firsts tests occurred on the Foggia-Benevento line in the September 1927, using three prototypes built by Savigliano, with the electrical equipment provided by Metropolitan-Vickers of Manchester.

The only teething problem encountered was with the six 32R motors mounted on the axles, hanging laterally over transverse beams, a system devised to avoid the complicated side rods of the contemporary steam and three-phase locomotives.

Traction control was provided by three different motor combinations (series, series-parallel, parallel) through banks of resistor-based rheostats.