KIEV, Jan. 15 - Sales of new cars in Ukraine rose 46.2% to 542,000 vehicles in 2007, the Auto-Consulting group reported.

Sales in December jumped nearly 80% year-on-year to a new record of more than 61,000 new cars.

December also saw substantial changes among the top ten sellers. Russia's Avtovaz was the top seller with 21.7% of the market, but this was 3 percentage points lower than in November. Meanwhile, Chevrolet, with 9.3% of the market, rose to second place for the first time, pushing Daewoo into third.