AMR 35 - Production

Production

The original order envisaged a first delivery of ten vehicles in December 1934 and a completion in March 1935. This last date was soon postponed to August 1935, but that month production had hardly started yet due to great financial problems with Renault. In June 1935 Renault even refused a second order of fifty, fearing the contractual fines the inevitable delays would cause. However, on 20 April 1936 he accepted an additional order for thirty vehicles, to be delivered before 15 December 1936. Of these, fifteen would be of the 7.5 mm machine-gun version, five of the ADF 1 and five each of two tank destroyer types, the ZT 2 and ZT 3. On 9 October 1936 a third and final contract was signed of seventy vehicles: sixty of the 7.5 mm machine-gun version, half of these without a radio set; and five each of the ZT 2 and ZT 3, with a final delivery before 7 August 1937.

The onset of production was also slowed by coordination problems with the subcontractors: Schneider would produce the armour plates and construct empty hulls; Batignolles-Châtillon would make the AVIS-2 turrets. Final assembly was by Renault.

In March 1935 Schneider delivered the first empty hull. On 20 May this hull was finished and sent to Satory for tests. When these had been successfully completed on 24 June, another vehicle, the third of the production series, was sent to the STC (Section Technique de Cavalerie) for further testing. The Satory vehicle was fitted with a turret and again tested between 3 and 7 August without serious problems. On 9 August however, the STC vehicle failed to climb a 50% slope, even though the other vehicle had done so effortlessly. This would be the beginning of a series of severe delays. The Army demanded that the gear ratio be changed and on 2 September refused to accept the first batch of twelve vehicles. On 19 October the first modified vehicle was finished and the first eleven vehicles were only accepted in January 1936 and the first AMR 35 taken into service on 22 April 1936.

Meanwhile the Citroën factory had tried to take over the order by developing the AMR Citroën P 103 which had a very novel hydraulic suspension, but this project was rejected.

On 22 February 1936 thirty AMR 35s had been produced; twenty more were being worked on. By the end of June 1936 production numbers had reached 76 tanks, 41 of which had been delivered. At that moment however, a very serious reliability problem emerged that was to slow down production considerably. Many mechanical parts proved to be too weak; especially the Cleveland differentials were not capable of taking the stress loads caused by the high speed of the tank. Much of the factory capacity in 1937 was used to rebuild and modify the entire first production batch of 92. On 8 April 1937 Renault was forced to submit two modified vehicles — one of each of the two main versions — for acceptance as "prototypes". This upgrading project did not result in a very reliable vehicle though: in October the Ministry of War was amazed to find out that out of 43 vehicles, of which the differential had already been replaced five times, six were again in need of a new one.

From August 1937 the 75 gun tanks of the second and third series were taken into production. The first five of these were only delivered between 3 and 5 May 1938, the next ten between 2 and 3 June. On 27 July 56 had been produced and 34 delivered. The penultimate delivery was on 21 November, the last vehicles were probably produced just before the end of 1938. The second and third batch incorporated the improvements made in 1937 on the first batch but also featured some unique modifications such as a Synchromesh gear box and reinforced chassis girders in the front of the vehicle to ensure a sufficient frame rigidity: a severe distortion had occurred on the earlier vehicles.

The AMR 35 vehicles remained very unreliable: on 1 January 1939 only 129 chassis of all subtypes were present in the combat units, the others being centrally repaired or having been sent back to the factory. Due to the structural delays and technical problems it had been decided in 1937 to eventually discontinue AMR 35 production and to supplement the existing vehicles by a more reliable and powerfully armed new armoured car, the AMR Gendron-SOMUA.

For Renault, the entire AMR project had been a financial disaster. On 16 November 1938 he begged the government to be exonerated from the contractual fines, pointing out that he had already, on his expense, twice completely replaced the gear wheels on all vehicles and additionally all transmissions and front axles.