A visitor at the auto show in Shanghai in April. YIN LIQIN / FOR CHINA DAILY

China's annual output of automobiles is poised to break 50 million, said Dong Yang, executive vice chairman of China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM). Dong made the announcement at the 2017 China Auto Forum held in Shanghai on May 15.

The growth of automobile sales in China in the next few years is expected to be maintained at 7 percent, the vice chairman said. Dong noted that 80 percent of annual production will be domestically oriented, while the rest will be shipped overseas. Previous statistics from the association show that domestic automobile production and sales in 2016 were 28.11 and 28.02 million respectively.

Though market demand has been reduced by purchase and traffic restrictions in some major cities, emerging second-tier cities will help to revitalize the energy of the automobile market, said Zhang Liqun, vice-inspector of the Department of Macroeconomic Research under the Development Research Center of the State Council.

China's domestic automobile brands have performed quite well in recent years, especially buses, trucks, small sport-utility vehicles and small multi-purpose vehicles. Sales of Chinese brands in 2016, which breached the 10-million barrier for the first time ever in that year, accounted for 43.19 percent of total vehicle sales in China. In addition, the country's electric vehicle output reached 500,000 in 2016, accounting for half the world's total production in that year.

The technology behind China's electric vehicles will be updated every two years. Dong believes that in the next five to 10 years, China's electric-vehicle manufacturing will catch up with that of those countries currently ranking at the top.