The new passenger car market in Ukraine in March reached only 2,259 cars, which is 79.2% down on March 2014 and 23% down on February 2015, the Ukrautoprom association has reported.

The association said that the number of new vehicles sold in March (2,579) was the lowest figure starting from 2001.

According to a posting on the association's website, the leader of the new passenger car market in March was Toyota, boosting sales by 3.5% on February 2015, to 175, which allowed the brand to climb from the sixth position.

In March 2014, Toyota was third with car sales exceeding the March 2015 sales by six times.

Renault (the leader of February) was second with 173 cars sold, which is 28% down on February 2015.

"A year ago Renault was eighth with 2.4 times more sales," Ukrautoprom said.

Volkswagen was third with 151 cars (in February it was fifth) with 14% decline in sales on February 2015 and 70.6% down on March 2015.

Skoda was fourth with 140 cars sold (a rise of 64% on February 2015 and 71% down on March 2014). In February 2015 Skoda was only 13th and in March 2014 – sixth.

KIA is fifth with 118 cars sold with 6% rise in sales compared to February 2015 and 65% fall on March 2014 (11th).

A total of 270 commercial vehicles were sold on the new commercial vehicle market in March, a decline of 37% on February 2015 and almost 62% decline on March 2014.

Volkswagen is the leader in the segment with around 19% share of all primary registrations.

Some 50 new buses were sold in March, which is twice more than in February 2015, but 54% down on March 2014.

RUTA buses occupied 36% of the Ukrainian new bus market in March.