There was a lack of British-developed four-wheel-drive vehicles developed during the war and no commercial demand for them afterwards. As a result, the Army, under the time's general assumption of indigenous sourcing, was forced to develop its own vehicle. The Hathi prototype was developed in 1922 by a team of P Company under Professor (honorary Colonel) Herbert Niblett of the Royal Army Service Corps Training College, Aldershot, using parts of a German Erhardt tractor. Production models were built by Thornycroft, 25 being built in 1924.