It consisted of 12 (numbered from 71 to 82) very innovative for the time electric vehicles, fitted with pantograph (rail), Scharfenberg couplers and driver operated pneumatic doors.
Designed in 1903 by Karl Scharfenberg in Königsberg, Germany (today Kaliningrad, Russia), it has gradually spread from transit trains to regular passenger service trains, although outside Europe its use is generally restricted to mass transit systems.