On 9 October 1936, 21 "Renault ZT4"s, a tropical version with improved cooling, were ordered for the colonial troops to replace their obsolete Renault FT 17's, that were not very suited for the rôle of long range surveillance, typical of colonial conditions. As these troops still used the Hotchkiss 8 mm machine gun as their standard weapon, they wanted six ZT4 vehicles with the same to be produced in France; it was decided in the motherland however that it would be cheaper to install the old colonial FT 17 machine-gun turrets on new hulls of the AMR 35, so the latter were to be produced only. Likewise twelve 37 mm FT 17 turrets could be placed; only three vehicle would thus have the more expensive AVIS-1 turret and this was only allowed in 1937. As the colonies refused this solution — but gave Renault no indication of an alternative — deliveries were to be strongly delayed. The first order, destined for Indo-China, N° 6693 - 66953, had to be delivered between April and 9 July 1937, but not a single vehicle had been built at that date. The same year a second order was made, again of three AVIS-1 vehicles, bringing the total to 24. In May 1938 Renault tested the fitting of a 37 mm FT 17 turret on an AMR 35 chassis but no series production materialised. However, he went into negotiations with Brazil about a "considerable" export of ZT 4s. In the Autumn of 1938 the colonies made a third order of 31 ZT 4s, all with the AVIS-1, bringing the total to 55. Though Renault now had sufficient production capacity, the standard AMR 35 order having been finished, the labour and financial problems with his factory, combined with a lack of funding by the government, prevented any ZT 4 manufacture to start.