The curious story of the Peugeot P4, the French G-Class that existed until recently

Few people know about the existence of this Peugeot model, and if many of us saw it a little further, we would assume that we have before our eyes a Mercedes G-Class in front, not a French offroader, and we would not be far from truth. However, France once had such a model, called the Peugeot P4, which has a very curious and little-known story behind it.

Everything starts from military needs, as happened many times in the case of offroaders from the past years. The French army had about 10 thousand Jeeps in its equipment, left over from 1944, and by the 60s they had become obsolete and required replacement. And the army wanted to replace them with something native, only that 4x4 cars seemed like a segment forgotten by the French car industry.

The army summoned the manufacturers and proposed to them to design a 4x4 offroader, guaranteeing them a contract of at least 10 thousand cars purchased, possibly 15 thousand. But the numbers were too small to develop a model from scratch, all the manufacturers said in unison. So both large and small producers refused.

Then the French authorities proposed to West Germany and Italy to jointly design such a military offroader, symbolically named Europa Jeep. The three countries together would have ensured at least 50 thousand orders, and thus there would have been more commercial interest. When it was time to submit proposals, however, each country came up with its own specific, often contradictory, requests. And so the idea was quickly thwarted. Italy already had the Fiat Nuovo Campagnola developed, which was launched in 1974. Germany had already set about developing the future G-Class, which would be launched in 1979.

Photo: Fiat Nuovo Campagnola

The French Army thus bought 7,064 Citroen Meharis as a temporary solution, hoping to revive the hopes of its manufacturers and convince them to develop, after all, a car for the country's military needs. Towards the end of 1976, the army officially and insistently requested Citroen, Peugeot and Renault to develop such models. The three manufacturers categorically refused and said that such an offroader can only be produced in France if partnership contracts are used abroad. The army had to accept.

Photo: Citroen Mehari, the temporary solution chosen by the army

Renault turned to Fiat and negotiated a licensing agreement for Campagnola, producing it in France, equipping it with a Renault engine and calling it the Renault/Saviem TRM 500.

Photo: Renault TRM500

Citroen went to VW and obtained a license contract for the VW Iltis, thus creating the Citroen C44, also equipped with an engine of the French brand.

Peugeot signed an agreement with Mercedes to share a bit of the costs of the last hundred meters of development of the G-Class and to be able to use the platform of the G-Class for a military model of its own. Thus, the Peugeot P4 is based on a military G-Class chassis, with a G-Class all-wheel drive system, developed by Magna-Steyr and Puch for the Germans. Engines have always been Peugeot, both petrol and diesel, from petrol V6s to 4-cylinders. The first engine was taken from the Peugeot 504, and the gearbox from the Peugeot 604. The electrical system, by the way, was also developed by Peugeot, and the bodywork was also produced in France. Then followed the installation of a Peugeot diesel engine, from the Indenor family, of 2.5 liters.

In 1978, even before the launch of the G-Class, Peugeot already had two prototypes produced, which it put in a rally in Algeria to test them. One was diesel and the other gasoline. The Peugeot P4 was then entered in the Dakar rally, where it performed well.

Photo: Peugeot P4 at the Paris-Dakar rally, year 1981

Even in 2023, there were enthusiasts who came to participate in the Dakar classics category with the Peugeot P4.

Photo: A classic Peugeot P4 at Dakar 2023

In 1981 the French army ordered 15,000 Peugeot P4s, both diesel and petrol, but the number was later reduced to 13,500 due to army cuts. After producing for 4 years a part of the cars from this contract, Peugeot transferred the production of the model to the Panhard factory in Marolles-en-Hurepoix, where 6,000 more cars were produced.

Later, a civilian version of the Peugeot P4 was also launched, but it was expensive, and Mercedes had forbidden the French to export to countries other than those in Africa, which had defense agreements with France. So the civilian version did not have high production and sales numbers.

The model had been renamed Panhard in the meantime. New, derivative versions were released with armor and more combat equipment. For example, in the 90s, 80 armored P4Ps were produced, and in recent years the Panhard VPS version could be armored to the STANAG standard.

Photo: Panhard VPS

In 2015, the French army had about 2,500 copies of Peugeot P4 and its derivatives, then it donated to the armies of other countries, but until today their number is about 2,000 units. Officially, the model was in production until 2018, although in recent years more old cars were repaired and re-equipped than new ones were produced. Then, in 2018, Panhard was incorporated into Renault Defense and they formed the Arquus defense group, which today already produces larger and more modern armored vehicles. This Peugeot P4, however, remains the main light military offroader of the French army for a good period of time, with a very curious and very little known history.