After the war, Soviet interest in wheeled armoured vehicles shifted primarily to purpose-built armoured personnel carriers (APCs). Soviet military officials wanted armoured vehicles capable of keeping pace with tanks that could transport infantry to an engagement.[7] As early as mid-March 1943, GAZ had developed an APC variant of the BA-64B, the BA-64E, which could accommodate six passengers.[2] This vehicle was open-topped and the passengers debarked through a door in the rear hull. The BA-64E was rejected as being too small for a practical APC; however, a number of its features would later be incorporated into a new design better able to combine the traditional roles of an armoured car with that of a general transporter: the BTR-40.[2]