The AB 40 armoured automobile was devised for the Italian Royal Army in the late 1930s, to displace the old Lancia models. The automobile was innovative at that time, being a four-wheel drive with separate suspensions and two driving positions. The armoured car had been fitted with two 8mm machine guns within the turret and another in rear for the hull, but had been only built in tiny numbers for evaluation purposes, as growth of the greater advanced AB 41 had been underway. A few of the models were changed into tracked patrol vehicles due to the fact tires could be replaced with rail wheels and relative stopping systems. A few of these automobiles were utilized in Yugoslavia by the Italian forces and, later, by the Germans.