In China, electrification with 25,000 V alternating current was strongly promoted in the 1980s. Since it was found that there was a technological deficit in terms of electric locomotives and that the existing engines had reliability problems, the search for suitable models began abroad. As a result, 85 six-axle 6Ks were imported from Japan, 100 eight-axle 8Gs based on the ВЛ80 from the Soviet Union and 150 eight-axle 8Ks from France.

The 6K was a Hitachi locomotive with three two-axle bogies. This design had already been used successfully in Japan in the past. Thanks to a center bogie that was laterally adjustable by 230 mm, this resulted in a good ability to negotiate curves and caused little wear on the rails. The special feature of the power transmission was that it consisted of only two groups and the two axles of the middle bogie were each driven by one group. Compared to the Japanese locomotives with a B-B-B wheel arrangement in cape gauge, the 6K not only had a larger gauge, but was generally significantly larger and heavier.

Although the 6K could only do 100 km/h, it was used equally for passenger and freight trains. As expected, it achieved better availability than the electric locomotives previously manufactured in China. In the nineties it was further developed into the SS7, which was built until 2007. By 2010, only four 6Ks had been retired. Since their reliability subsequently decreased and enough new-generation locomotives were already available, the large wave of retirement began in 2013. The last use of a 6K was on March 21, 2014 and today one engine remains in the museum in Beijing.

Another type of electric locomotives imported from abroad in the 1980s was the 8K, supplied by Alstom. The reason for ordering a heavy goods train locomotive was the lack of capacity to haul large quantities of coal, which was urgently needed in Shanxi Province in particular. In order to be able to achieve sufficient traction with two-axle bogies, the 8K was designed as a double locomotive with two four-axle sections. The basis used was the BB 15000, which had been used by the SNCF since 1971. 148 units were delivered from France and two more were built in the Zhuzhou locomotive works in order to gain knowledge of modern technology.

Visually, the locomotives built for China differed from their originals in that they lacked the “Nez Cassé”, i.e. the bent fronts. In terms of power train technology, the biggest difference was that each axle had its own motor and not the typical French monomotor bogies were used. As with the 6K, traction motors with 800 kW each were used, resulting in a total output of 6,400 kW. The top speed was also set at 100 km/h.

As planned, the locomotives were mainly used to pull coal trains, which usually weighed around 4,000 tonnes. Later, train weights of 6,000 tonnes with one locomotive or 10,000 tonnes with two locomotives were tested. Although the power of the locomotives was sufficient, only the tests with 6,000 tonne trains were successful. With the heavier trains, it had been shown that the couplings were not up to the loads. Outside of their normal area of operation, the 8Ks were also used to haul passenger trains during the Chinese New Year celebrations, when passenger traffic was extremely high. The retirement took place between 2010 and 2015 due to the increasingly serious lack of spare parts. Four examples have been preserved for posterity, but not in working condition.

The DJ1 is a two-section heavy freight locomotive that emerged from a technology transfer between Siemens and the Zhuzhou Locomotive Works (CRRC). The contract stipulated that the first three locomotives would be manufactured by Siemens in Graz and a further 17 in China with direct support from Siemens. Each locomotive consists of two identical halves, each with a driver's cab, each of which has a continuous output of 3,200 kW and can deliver up to 4,100 kW for 10 minutes. Power is being fed to three-phase motors, while the other Chinese locomotives at that time still had direct current motors.

They were intended for use on the 653 km long Datong-Qinhuangdao ("Daqin") route, which was built exclusively for the transport of coal and runs from Inner Mongolia to China's largest coal export port. To increase the tractive effort, some locomotives are each equipped with eight tonnes of additional ballast, which brings the weight of one half of the locomotive to 100 tonnes and increases the starting tractive effort from 700 to 760 kN. As early as 2006, when the more modern and more powerful HXD1 and HXD2 locomotives were introduced in larger numbers on the Daqin line, the DJ1's time of hauling coal ended and since then they have been pulling normal freight trains on other lines.

Inner Mongolia's coal is transported to the sea on the Daqin line between Datong and Qinhuangdao. Shortly after the turn of the millennium, the planned capacity of 100 million tonnes per year was reached there. Since this could even be quadrupled in the following years through continuous expansion measures, the only 20 DJ1s built and the older electric locomotives quickly reached their limits. For this reason, the HXD1 was developed again in cooperation with Siemens as a direct successor to the DJ1.

The HXD1 is based on the then current generation of the EuroSprinter and uses modern IGBT pulse-controlled inverters to convert the alternating current instead of the outdated thyristor. Again the concept of two permanently coupled locomotives, each with four axles and an axle load of 23 tonnes, which can be increased to 25 tonnes with ballast if the rails are strong enough, was used. This results in the same starting tractive effort as with its predecessor, but due to the increased continuous output of 9,600 kW each, higher tractive effort at higher speeds. This enables them to pull coal trains with up to 216 wagons and a weight of 20,000 tonnes. A total of 271 HXD1 were built in multiple series between 2006 and 2012.

In addition to the Chinese State Railways, the company China Shenhua Energy also owns some of these locomotives for use on their own coal railways. Only a liberalization of market policy made it possible to deliver these locomotives based on foreign technology to a company outside the state railway. Some of these locos can be recognized by a revised, more rounded front and, like the prototype HXD1-1000, have a larger proportion of purely Chinese equipment. In addition to the conventional HXD1, Shenhua has also been operating two three-section locomotives since 2013. In 2020, the order followed for up to 13 six-section “Shen 24”, which, with their 24 axles, will be around 106 meters long. With a continuous output of 28,800 kW, they are considered the most powerful multi-section locomotives in the world. Visually, these in turn are characterized by a new, squarer head shape.

Based on the HXD1, consisting of two sections, each with four axles, a six-axle single-frame locomotive with two cabs was developed. The first variant is the HXD1B, which still contains a lot of technology from the technology transfer with Siemens and can also provide a continuous output of 9,600 kW with a total weight of 150 tonnes. Based on this, the HXD1C was developed, which increasingly uses purely Chinese-made equipment. It only has a continuous output of 7,200 kW, but weighs only 138 tonnes and can also be weighted down to 150 tonnes with ballast.

From 2009, 500 HXD1B were built, with 1,207 HXD1C being built at the same time. The first export order to Serbia was announced in 2016 to supply coal to the country's largest power plant, named after Nikola Tesla. The power system with 25 kV and 50 Hertz is also used in the Balkans, the locomotives were only adapted for use in Europe and are designed for a top speed of 140 km/h with 7,000 kW continuous output. In 2017, North Macedonia also ordered the HXD1C as class 443 to replace outdated electric locomotives. In Djibouti, where China has established a military and economic base and has taken over the construction of the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway, HXD1s are used with Chinese passenger cars.

For heavy and fast passenger trains, the locomotive factory in Zhouzhou developed the HXD1D, which was based directly on the experience gained with the HXD1C freight locomotive that was developed in cooperation with Siemens. The prototype was designed for a speed of 200 km/h and had a continuous output of 9,600 kW. The body of the locomotive was streamlined at the ends to improve visual appearance and reduce drag, according to the manufacturer. Multiple cameras are used to monitor the surroundings and a retinal camera is used to detect driver fatigue.

When it was decided to only develop conventional passenger trains with 160 km/h, the production version of the locomotive was changed accordingly. The continuous power was lowered to 7,200 kW and it used the same Chinese-developed IGBT pulse-controlled inverter used in the HXD1C. The weight of the locomotive was reduced to 126 tonnes, resulting in an axle load of 21 tonnes. With the installed power, a passenger train with 20 cars and a total of 3,000 seats can be accelerated to 160 km/h in five minutes. 684 production pieces were ordered, all of which should probably have been delivered by 2020.

A variant of the CR200J multiple unit, called the CR200J-SG, also uses the power train of the HXD1D. To overcome the Sichuan-Tibet railway with a peak altitude of almost 4,000 meters, the two sets have a converted HXD1D at one end and a two-part, twelve-axle diesel powercar at the other end.

One of the foreign companies with which China entered into a joint venture to produce modern electric locomotives was Bombardier. The 500 HXD3B ordered in 2007 had an order volume of 1.1 billion euros, of which Bombardier held just over a third. Large parts of the construction came from the IORE developed by Adtranz for the Swedish MTAB.

Compared to the IORE, the locomotives consist of only one section and have two driver's cabs. Through further development in the field of power electronics, the output could be increased from 5,400 kW for one half of the IORE to 9,600 kW. Since the HXD3B is designed for general freight transport and not for heavy ore trains, the maximum speed has been increased to 120 km/h and the starting tractive effort has been reduced from 700 to 570 kN.

The electronics and the traction electrics of the first 150 locomotives were delivered directly from Bombardier in Germany and installed in the locomotive bodies made in China. The remaining 350 were built entirely by the Dalian locomotive factory in cooperation with Bombardier's Chinese subsidiary. The HXD3B formed the base of the HXD3C, which is produced without foreign aid and was produced more than 1,000 times since 2010.

More than 1,000 HXD3 and 500 HXD3B had already been built in Dalian, each with the help of Toshiba and Bombardier. As the next step in the development, the best experiences from both locomotives were combined and the 7,200 kW multi-purpose locomotive HXD3C was constructed. With ballast weights, the service weight can be set to 138 or 150 tonnes, depending on requirements. More than 1,000 HXD3Cs have already been built for the Chinese railways alone and several hundred have been delivered to Uzbekistan and Laos.