The Panhard EBR (Panhard Engin Blindé de Reconnaissance, French: Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle) is an armoured car designed by Panhard for the French Army and later used across the globe, notably by the French Army during the Algerian War and by the Portuguese Army during the Portuguese Colonial War.

The EBR is an 8x8 wheeled reconnaissance vehicle based on the previous Panhard AM 40 P/Model 201, a light armored car born before the Second World War, but remained only at prototype level. After the war the new contest for a postwar armored car saw the Panhard proposal as winner against two other French firms. While the two basic concepts developed with the M.201 were retained (8 wheels and oscillating turret), the new armoured car was a new project, much heavier (13 t vs 8), with a larger crew (4 vs 2) and a 75 mm gun (vs 25 mm). Other innovations included new anti-bullet Michelin tyres and Veil-Picard tubes, which feature a series of nitrogen-filled cells, enabling them to absorb bullet hits and not go flat.^[3] The armoured hull is mounted on an 8-wheel drive, with 4 inner metal wheels, which can be raised for driving on the road. The four central wheels have aluminum rims with steel grousers, separated by rubber blocks;^[3] with all eight wheels deployed, ground pressure is only 0.7 kg (1.5 lb) per 1 cm² (0.16 in²).,^[3] very sloped armour, and double machine guns inside the hull nose and aft.

The EBR had a crew of four, two drivers (front and rear) and a gunner and a commander, both seating in the oscillating turret,^[4] and was powered by a 200 hp (150 kW) 6 liter^[3] 12HD horizontally opposed air-cooled 12-cylinder engine (with dual carburetors and 6.6:1 compression, enabling it to run on low-octane petrol).^[3] Based on Panhard's two-cylinder automobile engine, it was mounted under the floor of the fighting compartment, which had the unfortunate effect of requiring the turret to be removed to conduct major engine repairs.^[3]

France has, since 1935, engaged in the manufacture and use of a prolific line of wheeled armored reconnaissance vehicles armed with weapons with an anti-tank capability. This being the result of reforms initiated by the Light Mechanized Divisions (DML).

French tactical doctrine required reconnaissance elements to cover and range over a large and extensive battlefield, especially within the context of the slow and high-maintenance tanks of the time. Also of note is the way that tanks are best deployed, massed and concentrated, which prevents their dispersion for safety and for screening.

It is a particular trait of French reconnaissance vehicles to be heavily armed. From the prewar MD 178 armed with an anti-tank gun of 25 mm, (which was for the period a significant caliber for such a small vehicle) to the direct successor of the EBR, the AMX-10RC, also used for wheeled reconnaissance, and armed with a powerful 105 mm gun with automatic firing, firepower equal to a main battle tank of the 1980s. A pattern repeated in the AML 90 and the ERC 90 Sagaie.

These reconnaissance systems are not only aimed at discovery and investigation (missions that can be fulfilled by lighter vehicles with lighter weapons), but also with security missions upon the battlefield (for example flank-security and offensive protection) which requires a substantial firepower not only to destroy the enemy advance elements, but also to oppose armoured incursions.

A turretless Panhard EBR carried the coffin of French president Charles de Gaulle at his state funeral.^[7][8]

Portugal ordered 50 EBRs and 28 ETTs in 1956.^[6] Most of these vehicles were assigned to the Army reconnaissance units stationed in the then portuguese overseas provinces of Angola and Mozambique, being there at the outbreak of the Portuguese Overseas War and used in its early stages in counter-insurgency operations.^[6] In 1974, during the Carnation Revolution, EBR 75 FL10 cars of the Armed Forces Movement confronted M47 Patton tanks of loyalist troops in the Praça do Comércio.^[6] The crews of the vehicles of the two sides eventually stood down without incident.^[6]

Aside from Portugal and a few newly emerging Francophone states in North Africa, the only export sales of the EBR were a few small quantities produced for the Indonesian Army and the West German Bundesgrenzschutz.^[6]

•  France^[9]
•  West Germany^[6]
•  Indonesia^[6]
•  Mauritania: 15^[10]
•  Morocco: 36;^[10] 27 operational in 2009.^[11]
•  Portugal: 51^[10]
•  Tunisia: 15^[10]

• AMX-50
• AMX-13
• SK-105 Kürassier