The ВЛ80 (VL80) was the most important electric freight locomotive on the 25,000 Volt AC network in the Soviet Union and its successor states. In its mechanic part, it was mostly identical with the ВЛ10 for use on the DC network. Thy consisted of two independent sections of four axles each and had a top speed of 110 km/h. Some locomotives were even built with three sections.

Over the years, several variants were built with changes in the electric part. The first mass-produced variant was the ВЛ80К (VL80K) with 695. The next variant were 1,317 ВЛ80Т (VL80T) with a rheostatic brake. Starting with the 373 ВЛ80Р (VL80R), a regenerative brake was used. The last and most numerous variant was the ВЛ80С (VL80S) with 2,746.

Depending on the source, 4,921 or even more than 5,100 locomotives were built between 1961 and 1995. Even though the addition of the numbers of the individual variants results in the higher number, the lower number found in several sources might come from many locomotives which were rebuilt into another variant. In Ukraine in the nineties, some were even used to create electric multiple units by adding coaches between the two sections of a locomotive.