TCDD ordered the locomotives to be used on the Istanbul-Ankara railway and later for freight operations on the Divriği to İskenderun iron ore route.

When electrification was complete, the railways' then fleet of electric locomotives would not be enough to operate the higher capacity of trains.

In 1987 the Turkish State Railways ordered an electric locomotive from Toshiba, which built one model and sent it to Turkey.

Electrification of the whole railway line was completed four years later on 26 December 1993, allowing the E43000s to make the full journey between Istanbul and Ankara.

The E43000 made history in late-2017 when 15 locomotives were leased from TCDD to Omsan Lojistik to run between Divriği to İskenderun on Turkey's first private common carrier railway since 1935.