The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) reckons the Chinese market, the world’s biggest, will grow only slightly in the next five years.

“The next five years will be the key period of industry’s transformation and upgrade,” Li Shaohua, a CAAM senior executive, told an industry conference hosted by the China Automotive Technology and Research Center (CATARC) in Tianjin, Reuters reported.

CAAM predicted China auto sales would reach around 27.75m vehicles in 2025, up from 25.77m in 2019, Li’s presentation showed.

Though sales recovered in recent months, following the COVID-19 pandemic, CAAM predicted a fall of around 10% for all of 2020.