At the end of the 1990s SNCF was faced with a diesel locomotive fleet of which the larger part was older than 30 years, and thus fuel-consuming and expensive in maintenance.

The Vossloh bid was deemed too expensive and also Firema couldn't convince FRET, so Alstom was awarded the contract in 2004.

[3] By 2006 Vossloh had become owner of the Alstom plant in Valencia, and thus inherited and completed the order.

[5] These locomotives were numbered in the 660000 series,[note 2] and were painted in the yellow and grey Infrastructure livery.

Bogies are the same as its predecessors and have primary (coil springs with Silentbloc, plus vertical shock absorbers) and secondary ("Sandwich" blocs) suspension.

[clarification needed] The locomotives were built by Vossloh España, the electrical transmission (generator, rectifier, IGBT inverters, traction motors) was supplied by Alstom.

Two locomotives in multiple-working are capable of hauling over 3,500 tonnes on the Lestrem branch line from Armentieres served from Lille Delivrance yard.

One unit has been used for SNCF's "Zéro pétrole" project (first decade 2000), and tested for operations using a 100% biodiesel derived fuel.