Of both types combined over five thousand were built, including licence production in Romania, and they were part of the standard equipment of all French infantry divisions.

Most Renault UE vehicles in French service were unarmed; those in 1940 captured by Germany were used for a variety of purposes, including being armed with machine-guns, antitank-guns and rocket artillery.

On 24 July 1930 the Commission de Vincennes rejected the truck and half-tracks as being too heavy and opted for the smaller weapon carrier of the Vickers type after limited, though satisfactory, testing.

Renault however indicated he had no intention to pay licence rights, unless the French state fully compensated him; the three companies were thus invited to build a "similar" vehicle, not an exact copy.

The first prototype to be ready, not at all resembling the Carden-Loyd carrier, was in the form of a very small half-track fitted with a Kégresse track and manned by only a driver protected by an armoured hood with vision slits, sitting on the left side of the vehicle, with the engine to his right.

The Latil prototype, presented on 7 August 1931 was very much on lines of the British type and strongly resembled the later Universal Carrier: fully tracked and with most of the vehicle covered by an open rectangular superstructure to ensure as large a carrying capacity as possible.

In October 1931 the Conseil Consultatif de l'Armement, under strong pressure by the Infantry to reach a quick decision, chose the Renault vehicle for production, even though the trial process had not been completed.

Each crew member, sitting below a hatch that is the only way of entrance or exit, has a fuel tank behind its seat, together having a total capacity of 56 litres, allowing for a range of a hundred kilometres.

The prototype had an armoured plate protecting this assembly, but it was omitted on the production vehicles to save weight, leaving only two elongated beams to brace the whole.

Likewise, the sprocket was simplified: the prototype's had been a closed disk, the production type had six circular holes; later vehicles were fitted with a wheel with six spokes.

Consideration had been given to arming it with a machine-gun, but the Direction de l'Infanterie feared that if such a weapon were mounted, the UE would be misused as a light tank rather than being dedicated to its correct tactical resupply role.

Part of this was the project to replace the Chenillette Modèle 31 with an improved type, which however should remain within the weight limit of the earlier vehicle or 2.6 metric tons.

Compared to the Modèle 31, the Lorraine chenillette was much more a dedicated supply vehicle, the larger size of which allowed for a superior carrying capacity, crew comfort and range, while its suspension with two bogies and four large road wheels ensured a good tactical mobility.

The commission concluded on 8 June that the Berliet chenillette was superior to the Renault UE in speed, range and mechanical reliability and saw no objection against taking it into production.

These changes were not very fundamental — the commission was not even aware this was supposed to end in a new type — but Renault used this very fact as an argument to select the UE 2 as the replacement vehicle: the improvements could be introduced without interrupting production, whereas the switch to a completely different design might cause a fatal delay in the rearmament process.

Prototype N° 77982 was therefore turned into a Automitrailleuse légère de contact tout terrain in the winter of 1932, by being fitted with a small rectangular superstructure holding in its front a ballmount with machine-gun to be operated by the commander; the hood was placed on top of it.

Though the tanks eventually reached China in 1940, the chenillettes were held up in Haiphong from 1938 because France gave in to Japanese pressure; they appear to have been confiscated in 1940 by the French authorities of Indochina.

On 31 May for trial purposes a 25 mm Hotchkiss anti-tank gun was fitted on a single vehicle; this led to an order on 10 June for 150 of such tank destroyers; none were produced.

As a first step in creating an indigenous armored fighting vehicle industry, the Romanian Defence Minister bought in 1937 the licence for the local production of 300 Renault UE Chenillettes.

After 1943 of the fifty surviving vehicles 33 were used for training; seventeen were from January 1944 until March rebuilt by the Malaxa factory, which reinforced them to allow them to tow the even heavier German 50 mm L/60 anti-tank gun.

In the mid-thirties Chaubeyre produced the prototype of a smoke-laying vehicle, the generator using a thousand litres tank placed on a Renault UK trailer.

In February 1938 Renault presented stronger tracks and more resistant road wheels, with an improved device to keep the axles waterproof, to the Commission de Vincennes.

The commission concluded that the new type was clearly superior in durability, but that this was caused by the use of chrome steel that made it 70% more expensive, too pricy for the French Army.

It was shown that the AMX suspension, though much sturdier, had a negative influence on the performance: speed and range fell about 15%, mostly due to an incorrect weight distribution.

The remainder of the vehicle was normally painted a dull bronze green overall, not using the intricate three- or four-colour schemes typical of French armour of the time.

As the tractors were too small to accommodate the weapon crews, these had to move behind, following the vehicles on foot; the piece commander during this procedure sat next to the chenillette driver to indicate the desired new position of his mortar or gun.

For longer distance moves, the chenillette would be normally loaded on a truck, with the Renault UK trailer and (on good roads) possible mortars or guns towed behind.

In total the French Army had an organic strength of about 2500 Renault UEs; as the number of vehicles produced became after September 1939 much higher, Modèle 31s, mostly completely worn out, were gradually phased out.

They might also function in their original primary role of munition carrier, as Munitionsschlepper Renault UE(f),[6] some of these had an armoured roof fitted above the bin, to protect the ammunition load against overhead shell airbursts.

More complicated rebuilds were the Sicherungsfahrzeug UE(f), an airfield security vehicle produced for the Luftwaffe which, besides the 7.92 mm MG 34 casemate on the right, had a special high armoured superstructure fitted on the left back in which a guard could sit armed with a 13 mm machine-gun and the Kleiner Funk- und Beobachtungspanzer auf Infanterie-Schlepper UE(f), a special radio and artillery observation vehicle, forty of which would be modified by the Baukommando Becker (named after Alfred Becker) in France to eventually serve with the 21st Panzer Division.