As a safeguard against the failure of the Henschel design for the Tiger I, Porsche had been ordered to produce his design. When the results of the trials at Rastenburg were announced, and the Henschel design was judged to be superior, 90 Porsche vehicles were already produced. It was decided to utilize the chassis as the basis of a self-propelled carriage for the 88mm L/71 gun, designated as Jagdpanzer SdKfz 184 Ferdinand (adopted in honor of the designer, Dr Ferdinand Porsche). It featured a huge, box-shaped superstructure with only slightly sloped sides, and was heavily armored but highly underpowered.

As with Tiger tanks, the Ferdinand heavy tank destroyers were assigned to a separate regiment, comprising two battalions. Jagdpanzer Regiment 656 had PzJagAbt. 653, commanded by major Steinwachs, and PzJagAbt. 654, under major Noak. The vehicles were all dark yellow with heavy sprayed lines of olive green, and carried three digit numbers in white to denote the battery, section, and vehicle. The Ferdinands of PzJagAbt. 654 also displayed a white N on the front left mudguard, denoting their battalion commander. During operation Citadel at Kursk, the Ferdinands were used as break-through tanks, a role for which they were completely unsuited. Several Panzergrenadierers were carried with each vehicle for protection against Russian tank-killer infantry, but they were fully exposed and often unable to fight effectively from moving vehicles. The Ferdinand did not originally have a hull machine gun for self-defence and easily fell prey to Soviet infantry.

After its disastrous debut on the Eastern Front all surviving ones were modified to have a bow machine gun and a coat of zimmerit halfway up the superstructure. These improved vehicles were renamed Elefants and transferred to Italy.

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