Like many companies Hotchkiss found it difficult to restart after WW2, and existed mainly on the production of trucks and the American Jeep. World War Two had left almost 40,000 American Jeeps across France and the French Government gathered these up and had them built into Jeeps that actually worked by the ERGM, with Hotchkiss manufacturing missing parts. The result was known as the Hotchkiss M201. An attempt was made to replace the M201 with a French design, and the Delahaye VLR was accepted by the French government, but failing Delahaye manufactured less than 10,000 of the complex VLR from 1949 to 1955. However, with supplies dwindling in the early 1950s Hotchkiss won a contract to build Jeeps under licence commencing in 1956, essentially the same as the Willys MB but with a few improvements along the way. The French Army only replaced the M201 in 1981 when there were 8,000 still in active service.