To introduce a new family of heavy freight diesel locomotives in Europe, General Electric partnered with Freightliner in 2007 to develop the PowerHaul. This had to fit into the smaller European loading gauges and to be competitive, it also had to be fuel-efficient while providing good comfort for the crews.

The key to fit a diesel-electric locomotive with 3,700 hp into the European space and weight limits was a high-revving engine lighter than the American GEVO engines. The solution was the Austrian company Jenbacher that was owned by GE at this time and offered a V16 gas engine that could be modified into a diesel engine. This engine uses the Miller cycle to make it more efficient and additional savings were realized by using some of the power created by dynamic braking for auxiliaries.

Freightliner started operation with the first class 70 locomotive in 2009 that was designated PH37ACmi by the manufacturer. They had been built in hood design with two full-width cabs at the ends. After 19 orders from Freightliner, Colas Rail ordered a total of 18. A variant built for 1,520 mm broad gauge in Finland and with a full-width body is the PH37ACai. These nine locomotives were built for Operail, now North Rail, and designated Dr20.

In 2011, Tülomsaş in Turkey started to assemble PowerHaul locomotives from kits provided by GE. The first one was one of the PH37ACmi operated by Colas Rail in the UK and 20 respectively fünf PH37ACi were delivered to TCDD and Körfez Ulaştırma as DE36000. 30 more were assembled for several customers in Europe, Asia and Africa.

A variant also designated PH37ACi became class 7600 of Korail. These differ from the standard variant in that they were built for passenger service, so they are equipped with head-end power and have a top speed of 150 km/h. 25 were assembled by Hyundai Rotem in 2014. Also in 2014, three PH37ACmai were assembled by UGL Rail in Australia. These have Cape gauge and were operated by Pacific National as their class PH.