In 1933, Renault introduced a new type of diesel railcar with mechanical transmission, called type VH. After the first 15 had been delivered to several major French railways, 85 more were built until 1935. Up to this point, all major Railways except the Midi and AL had got the VH. They all got numbers with the prefix “ZZ”. Power came from a Renault V12 Diesel delivering 220 hp to a four-speed gearbox that was connected to both axles of one bogie. The engine was located in one of the two cabs. A long radiator on the roof led to the nickname “Iroquois”.

In 1938, the railcars from all railways came to the SNCF and were renumbered with the prefix “ZZR”, with the additional letter denoting the manufacturer. Later they got the new prefix “X”. Between 1944 and 1950, nine had to be withdrawn after damage in the war. Soon the others were modernized in several aspects, with new engines delivering 300 hp. After their withdrawal in the seventies, two have been preserved. While one is on display in Mulhouse, the other one is operational.

From 1926 Bugatti produced the Royale car model, which was a superlative with 300 hp, but could only be sold four times due to the global economic crisis. A new application was found for the engines that had already been produced by installing them in a new type of high-speed railcar. Bugatti called this vehicle “Wagon Rapide” or “WR” for short. The original design called “Présidentiel” was a streamlined railcar that was also used by the President. It stood on two four-axle bogies whose wheels were covered with rubber. In the middle were four engines that had been derated to 200 hp. The power transmission for each engine was carried out individually via a hydraulic transmission and a long cardan shaft to one axle each. The driver's cab was located directly above the engines in an elevated position so that the driver could see the track in both directions from his cupola.

In order to reduce the enormous fuel consumption, the WL (Wagon Léger) model was developed with only two engines and two powered axles per engine. There were also two- and three-car variants, in which the driver's cab and four engines were in one car. Since the three-car variant achieved a poorer power-to-weight ratio, a reduction gear for each engine was installed for starting. Because the assembled models had poorer visibility from the driver's cupola to the far end, an additional auxiliary cab was fitted at each end for maneuvering. Later the possibility was created to couple trailers. Some of these came from orders already placed for power cars that were modified before production. Since the two-engine variant did not have enough power to pull trailers, the “Allongé” (extended) variant with a length of 21 m instead of 19.30 m and later the “Surallongé”, which was now 25.38 m long, were created. This increased the number of seats from 44 to 52 to 73.

172 km/h were already reached during the first test drives. This was later improved to 196 km/h, while longer distances were scheduled to run at an average speed of 116 km/h. Customers included the État state railway, the Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée (PLM) and the Alsace-Lorraine (AL) railway administration. Nine Présidentiel, 39 two-engine, three two-car, seven three-car and five trailers were built. Since the vehicles had to be fueled with a mixture of petrol, benzene and alcohol and used a lot of it, the two- and three-car vehicles were phased out as early as 1952. Another cost factor were the drum brakes, which wore out very quickly. The 13 short two-engine vehicles were converted to trailers in 1945 and then used together with the other single-car vehicles. These were phased out by 1958 and today only the example of the Présidentiel, which was used by President Albert Lebrun, exists.

With the electrification of the Ligne de Sceaux in the south of Paris, new electric railcars were ordered, which should combine good acceleration with a quick change of passengers. The vehicles were based on the Métro's Sprague-Thomson trains and had the railway's larger loading gauge. There were four doors per side and a driver's cab at one end. The basic unit consisted of two railcars, both of which were powered. Up to four of these units were combined into a train. They were later used by the RATP also on other routes and were retired between 1984 and 1987.

Since the PO/Midi had some only partially electrified branch lines in the south of France, they developed a railcar that could run electrically via overhead lines and diesel-electrically. The two vehicles built by Alsthom had the pantograph above the powered bogie and a diesel engine with two generators above the other bogie. Heating was via a steam boiler.

The two vehicles were put into service by the SNCF as the XAT 1000 and were given the nickname “Autorail amphibie”. From Bordeaux they ran the first part east under overhead wire and continued to Bergerac or Périgueux using the diesel engine. During the Second World War, due to the lack of fuel, they ran almost exclusively on electric power, while after the war they ran almost exclusively on diesel-electric power. In 1952, even the electrical operation equipment was removed, while two smaller diesel engines of 209 kW each were installed. They continued to operate in this configuration until 1959.

With the Coradia Polyvalent, Alstom offers a multiple unit that is available purely electric or as a dual-powered train with diesel and electric drive. As is typical for the Coradia, the entire drive technology, including the diesel engines, is located on the roof. Various versions are available for use on suburban routes, in regional traffic and in intercity traffic. From the framework contract for 1,000 trains, the SNCF called off 387 units as “Régiolis” until 2020. 17 and 15 trains respectively were also sold to Algeria and Senegal. The trains are now being produced and further developed by CAF. In the future, the diesel engines will be replaced by batteries, and a fuel cell drive is also under development.

The SNCF's largest order to date were the “Autorail à grande capacité” multiple units. The goal was to replace the previously locomotive-hauled TER trains in regional traffic. They are offered for diesel and electric traction, with the B 81500 and B 82500 combining both types of power. They can run sections with overhead lines electrically with an output of 1,900 kW, while two diesel engines with a total of 1,324 kW are used for non-electrified sections. While the B 81500 is only designed for 1,500 volts direct current and consists of three or four cars, the three-car B 82500 can also be used under 25,000 volts alternating current. All variants have a powered bogie at each end and Jakobs bogies between the cars.