INGOLSTADT, Germany - China will be a key player in designing cars in the next centuries, a German automotive expert told Xinhua on Tuesday here on the sidelines of the 3rd German-Chinese Automobile Congress.

"In the future, the Chinese automotive industry will be very important (to the whole industry)," said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, automotive expert at the German CAR Institute.

The power train of the future is the electric vehicle. In China, there are some important batteries manufacturers. So China has a big stake in the future car, Dudenhoeffer added.

In addition, Dudenhoeffer said that it is very impressive to observe what is going on in China in the field of artificial intelligence, which will help to define the car of tomorrow.

According to him, it is hard to imagine the current development of German carmaker like Audi AG without China, as Audi has delivered 5 million units to Chinese customers from its entry into China in 1988 to 2018.

China is the center of the car world. China sells more than 20 million cars. The number could be 30 million in a few years, he said.

More than 400 company representatives, government officials and experts from China and Germany, attending the 3rd German-Chinese Automobile Congress in southern German city of Ingolstadt, said that they expected to see strengthened cooperation between the two countries in the auto sector and related fields.

During the conference, the participants discussed a wide range of topics, including industry cooperation, future technologies, as well as intellectual property rights and talent recruitment.