Since new, powerful switching locomotives were needed in the seventies, which were also to be used like a road switcher, a new locomotive was developed on the basis of the DF4. Depending on the variant, the top speed is 80 or 100 km/h. With six axles and half the power compared to the DF4, it is more optimized for higher tractive forces at low speed. A V8 was made out of the V16 engine, but this was not convincing and lead to only 32 of the first generation being built. Soon the engine was developed into an inline 8-cylinder, which had better characteristics.

Some locomotives were built in broad gauge to be used for switching in the border area with Russia. By 2006 more than 1,100 locomotives had been built, the latest generation of which has 1,800 hp instead of 1,650 and is produced by Sifang with many other improvements. Above all, it includes many innovations in the field of electronics. Today, the DF5 is the most common type of its kind in China, and North Korea also uses a few.