Renault has won four awards at the recent What Van? Awards 2011, including the prestigious Van of the Year and Large Panel Van of the Year awards for its all-new Renault Master model. This follows on from its Fleet World Best New Van award earlier this year.

The Master is available in both front and rear-wheel drive and comes in a variety of payloads and lengths that mean it offers a realistic challenge to almost all the other large panel van models on the market.

The new Master is also being rebadged and sold as the Vauxhall Movano, continuing the long-standing partnership arrangement between Vauxhall/Opel and Renault.

What Van? editor Paul Barker said that the new Master was “…an excellent new addition to the light commercial vehicle market” and that the “increased breadth of range, including rear-wheel drive models for the first time, and the industry-leading levels of interior functionality and practicality in particular swayed the judges’ decision.”

You can read our thoughts on the Renault Master here – suffice to say that if quality and reliability are up to scratch, it looks like a formidable market player that is a big improvement on the old model.

Renault’s other What Van? awards were for the introduction of its latest customer service initiatives, Renault iCare and Renault Pro+ and for its forthcoming Renault Kangoo Van Z.E. electric van, the first all-electric van to be built completely by a mainstream vehicle manufacturer.