Sales of new foreign-manufactured passenger cars (both imported and assembled in Ukraine) could fall by three times in April 2014 compared to April 2013, to some 7,500 cars, Atlant-M Automobile Holding has said.

"The fall in the market in April could be a record. This is mainly because of the sharp growth in the market seen in April 2013 before the introduction of special duties on cars – over 23,000 cars were sold compared to 16,500 cars in March 2013," Director of the strategic development department at Atlant-M Automobile Holding, Oleksiy Tereschenko, told Interfax-Ukraine.

He said that to the negative factors that have already resulted in the decline of the market in March by 44% on February 2014 - the devaluation of the hryvnia, the increase in the prices and the fall in incomes of the public – the actual stoppage of sales of cars in Crimea, operating risks in the southeastern part of Ukraine (Donetsk region is second in sales among the Ukrainian regions) will be added.

According to the strategic development department of Atlant-M, in the first quarter of 2014, the foreign-manufactured passenger car market fell by 13% year-over-year, to 32,247 cars, and there has been not been such a pace fall of the market fall as seen in March 2014 since February 2010.

"The main reason is the hryvnia devaluation. Along with the fall in incomes and savings of the public, confidence of buyers in the future and their disposition to buy durable goods sharply worsened. In addition, advancing demand of February 2014 partially took sales that could occur in spring," reads the press release of Atlant-M, citing Tereschenko.

According to the analysts, in the first quarter of 2014, 12 brands from top 20 showed a decline in sales compared to the previous year.

The previous leaders - Hyundai and Kia – saw a two times fall in sales, which brought the brand from the first and fourth positions in Q1, 2013 to sixth and ninth positions this year.

Geely is still the leader of the rating (last year it was third), Toyota is second (the brand climbed by four positions year-over-year).

Renault is third or five positions up year-over-year, and VW is fourth (second year-over-year). The largest growth in sales was seen with Daewoo (88%), the smaller is with Peugeot (75%), Geely (51%) and Mazda (44%).

"The falls and climbs of the brands in the ratings reflect various policies of importers in the conditions of crisis – someone tries to sell cars from warehouses, others sharply cut transactions not to have losses due to the exchange rate changes," the analysts of the holding said.

The premium car segment also suffered from crisis in the first quarter and fell by 20%. Audi is first and Mercedes is second.

According to Auto-Consulting information and analytical group, in March 2014, the new passenger car market (Ukrainian and foreign manufacturers) shrank by 34% on February 2014 and by 51% on March 2013, to 9,430 cars.

Atlant-M is the largest group of companies that sell and service cars operating on the Russian, Ukraine and Belarusian markets.