In early 1939, the commission still was considering whether to order about 250 vehicles. During this time SEAM experienced severe financial difficulties, however. When in July 1938 new specifications called for a main 75 mm armament in the turret, the company was unable to finance a completely redesigned vehicle; the existing prototype could not easily be adapted and its transmission had already shown to be overloaded by earlier weight increases. The company appealed to the ARL workshop to assist, and the "Conseil Consultatif de l'Armement" ordered on 19 January that ARL should comply, and SEAM transferred the prototype ARL for installation of an ARL 3 turret on a widened superstructure. When war broke out on 10 September 1939, this development was suspended. On 22 December 1939 it was restarted but merely as a technology demonstrator; at the time of the Fall of France the vehicle was still unfinished and without turret, though it was the only offshoot of the Char G1 project to near completion or even to be in a running condition.