Where does Hotchkiss M201 come from?

At the end of World War II, the French Government had large stocks of US owned vehicles on the lend-lease contracts, including Jeeps. A lot of these Jeeps found their way into civilian hands. The French Army had huge stocks of parts, but were not interested in selling them to the public. So companies began to emerge selling parts for the Willys/Ford Jeeps. One of them was Hotchkiss. During this period Hotchkiss was also rebuilding all surplus Jeeps that it could get its hands on. This was the start of the current originality problems as Hotchkiss would rebuild these Jeeps using mixed parts from either Jeeps and modified parts made by themselves. These Jeeps are known as 'hotchpotch', as they are neither Willys, Ford or Hotchkiss. They are a hybrid Jeep made by Hotchkiss using parts from all three Jeep types. Although in most cases Hotchkiss Jeeps around today are supposedly 100% Hotchkiss.
Then in late 1946 Hotchkiss was awarded a contract from Willys/Overland for distribution and sales of the then current Willys civilian Jeep models CJ-2a and CJ-3a, the so called 'Universal Jeep'. In the beginning everything was imported, then in 1952 the company started to manufacture a lot of spare parts in France for the huge surplus of war time Jeeps. During this same period they were granted a licence to manufacture the universal Jeep in France and the French colonies. The model which was produced was based on the then current Willys model, the CJ-3b, known as the JH101 in France. The production was fully carried out by Hotchkiss,although the engine, gearbox and axles were still made in the States and shipped over to France for final assembly. By 1960 Hotchkiss had produced some 3,500 models. Then Hotchkiss replaced this model with the entirely French built Jeep known as the JH102 model, which was later joined by the HWL model (a long wheel base version) in 1963.
During this period, the French Government had been looking for a French built lightweight 4x4 to replace the then ageing stocks of Willys and Ford war time Jeeps. Many French companies put in bids including Hotchkiss and Delahaye.
But in the end the French Government commissioned Hotchkiss to build a license built version of the wartime Willys MB. The many obvious advantages were that the French Army had huge piles of MB/GPW parts and they would not have to retrain Army mechanics, as they were still well used to working on current Army stocks of Willys and Ford Jeeps.
The first contract for 500 Jeeps was made with 6 volt electrics and looked very similar to wartime Jeeps, but further mass production models were converted to 12 volt and then 24 volt, as per the Army's requirements. The then standard production model had many variations, (which I shall come to shortly). This then standard model was known as the VLTT (Voiture de liaison tout terrain) or M201. Production finally ceased in 1966 with a total production run of some 27,500 models. The French Army continued to use these jeeps until the latter part of the 1970s. During this period the French Government, as other European governments, were stockpiling lots of army equipment in reserve stocks in case World War III broke out. Now with the cold war well and truly over, all European countries have been selling off government surplus army vehicles, including the French Army Hotchkiss Jeeps. That is why there are now so many of them around, and none more so than here in the UK. So that's your history lessons.