In 1933, the Warsaw city line was opened, which included a 2,226 meter long tunnel. Since the smoke and exhaust steam from the steam locomotives caused problems in the tunnel and the adjacent residential areas, the decision to electrify the line was quickly made. Lacking electrification expertise, one turned to English Electric and Metropolitan Vickers. These companies undertook the electrification of the city line and some suburban lines, supplied electric locomotives of the type EL.100 and supported the construction of electric railcars. As for the locomotives, the contract stipulated that English Electric would supply two examples and the electrical components for four more, to be completed with the mechanical part from Poland.

The locomotives were relatively modern designs with two bogies and single-axle drives. The locomotives imported from Manchester were given the numbers EL.101 and EL.102, the EL.103 to EL.106 made in Poland. Although they were 100 km/h fast, they were mainly used to pull passenger trains with steam locomotives over the city line. Although the steam locomotives were heated up, they produced little steam and smoke with no load. In 1939, the electrical components for four more locomotives were ordered, which were shipped in August. They never reached their destination, as they were probably intercepted by the Germans at the beginning of the war. Shortly before the end of the war, three of the four remaining engines were brought to Germany and only scrapped at the end of the fifties. The PKP had only one engine, which was in use until 1964.

Since Poland needed new electric locomotives after the war and did not yet have its own industry in this sector, these continued to be procured from foreign suppliers. Based on the experiences with British companies in the thirties, the electrical components for the production of seven four-axle electric locomotives were ordered there again, which were to be used again on the Warsaw light rail system. The complete locomotives were manufactured at the Pafawag wagon factory in Breslau. In 1957 an eighth locomotive was built with local electrics, which had a slightly lower output. The series designation at the PKP was first E110, then E02 and finally EP02.

Technically, the locomotives had a lot in common with the EL.100. Visually, they differed primarily in a more modern, streamlined locomotive body. Since the electrical equipment was no longer state-of-the-art and there were quality problems in the manufacture of the mechanical parts, many teething problems had to be repaired first. Nevertheless, they were used in express service until the 1960s and later in front of regular passenger trains. As more and more technical problems arose, the maximum speed was reduced to 70 km/h, which was soon followed by the removal from active service. After retiring from active service, some examples spent many years as stationary heating locomotives for passenger trains, the last one until 1992.

Due to a lack of experience in the production of electric locomotives, the PKP had already bought British locomotives before ordering more in the GDR. The 25 machines from LEW Hennigsdorf were initially referred to as the E200 and later became the EU04. These were universal locomotives with a top speed of 110 km/h and train heating.

Accordingly, they were used in front of passenger and freight trains. One problem was the high axle load of 21.5 tonnes, which was not yet permitted everywhere at the time. The decommissioning took place between 1970 and 1983. Today the EP04-24 is preserved, which is in the museum in Jaworzyna Śląska.

The first newly developed Polish locomotive in the 21st century was presented by the company Newag in 2009. The “Dragon”, intended primarily for freight service, has six axles with three-phase traction motors and a modular design that allows different power options. Sales initially got off to a slow start and were limited only to customers in Poland. The Dragon 2 has been built since 2018 and has been adapted to new TSI standards and has modernized traction electronics.

The basic variant is designed for operation under 3 kV direct current and has an output of 5,000 kW. The variant for 15 and 25 kV alternating current has an output of 7,200 kW, and a multi-system variant is also available. These can optionally be equipped with a last-mile module, which consists of a 520 kW diesel engine with generator. A pure diesel variant that has not yet been implemented has an output of 2,300 kW. For all variants, the starting tractive force can optionally be increased from 375 to 450 kN.

As a supplement to the six-axle Dragon, Newag developed a four-axle locomotive from 2010, which was initially to be given the name “Elephant”. A variant with a top speed of 140 km/h for the direct current system and a multi-system locomotive with a speed of 200 km/h were planned. During development, it was renamed „Griffin”.

The locomotives comply with the current EU crash standards and have modern electronic equipment. The driver's cabs contain multifunction displays and cameras are used to replace the rear-view mirrors and monitor the area around the couplers. Siemens also equips them with the necessary equipment for running under ETCS Level 2.

As the first variant, the E4MSU was tested by PKP Cargo from 2013. This is a multi-system universal locomotive with a maximum speed of 160 km/h, but was only built once. The 200 km/h fast multi-system passenger locomotive E4MSP was not initially implemented. The pure AC locomotives E4ACU and E4ACP were also not implemented.

The DC universal locomotive E4DCU was more successful. From it, 30 locomotives were purchased by PKP Intercity and used as EU160. Derived from this is the E4DCUd, which also has a 380 kW last-mile diesel. The five locomotives ordered by Lotos Kolej were not taken over and instead leased to PKP Intercity and Orlen KolTrains. PKP Intercity finally ordered ten more E4MSP machines, which were initially not implemented.