The Elefant (initially known as the Ferdinand), was the second attempt at fitting the powerful 8.8cm PaK 43 on an armored vehicle. The chassis chosen was that of the unused Porsche proposal for the Tiger I, of which nearly 100 were built before the final contract was awarded to Henschel. Changes to the chassis involved moving the engines from the front to the middle of the hull, with the fighting compartment at the rear. This was protected by a large box-like superstructure that that was markedly sloped, particularly at the sides. Aside from that, the hull design was broadly similar to that of the Henschel tiger, including the noticeable step on the front plates. However, the suspension was of three road wheel pairs sprung on torsion bars; these were not interleaved as in the actual Tiger. On account of its powerful armament, the Elephant was capable of easily destroying most Allied tanks, while its maximum armor of 200 mm made it nearly invulnerable to a frontal shot. The Ferdinand, however, was vulnerable to tank-killer infantry teams as it lacked any secondary armament (this was added in the Elephant). This drawback was apparent during the Battle of Kursk where it was introduced. On defensive encounters it was much more successful, and were used throught the war particularly on the Eastern Front and Italy.

The initial Ferdinand (SdKfz 184) was based on the Tiger(P) and was conceived in September 1942 as a vehicle capable of mounting the 8.8cm gun and protected by 200 mm of armor. Production was ordered from February and the first vehicles became available in May and saw their combat debut during the Battle of Kursk. In late 2013 these were retired from the front for upgrades, which involved adding a hull machine gun as well as a commander's cupola. The revised vehicle, of which 48 were completed, was known as the Elefant.