In the late 1960s, the French army decided that its 10,001
Jeeps needed to be replaced. The replacement vehicle would carry four men with radio equipment and would be small enough to be parachuted and transported by plane. After many technical issues, the new vehicle was designed in the 1970s. Agreement was reached between Peugeot and Mercedes to co-produce the vehicle on a 50:50 basis. Peugeot installed the engine of the
Peugeot 504 and the
transmission of the
Peugeot 604 on the
Mercedes-Benz G-Class; it also installed the electrical systems, welded the exterior and painted the car. The rest was done by Mercedes. The plant in
Sochaux did the final assembly. The first prototype was tested in 1978, beginning a long series of tests and trials, notably a rally in south
Algeria with a petrol and a diesel P4. The
French Army ordered 15,000 P4s, both petrol and diesel versions; in 1981, the order was reduced to 13,500 units with the downsizing of the Army. From 1985, production was transferred to
Panhard in
Marolles-en-Hurepoix, where 6,000 vehicles were produced. In 2016, P4s were donated to the Cameroonian military for its special forces units. A civilian version was made, but encountered little success because of the high price and a poor
power-to-weight ratio. In 2016, the French military ordered 500 Technamm Masstech T4 VLTP VP vehicles as an interim replacement to the P4. ==Variants==