Actually, electric vehicles pollute less and less because the ways in which electricity is produced are greener and greener. To give you an idea, in 2009, in about half the states of the USA, 48% of Americans believed that an electric vehicle polluted less than a gas-powered vehicle.
Last year, in 42 of the 50 American states, 94% believed that an electric vehicle polluted less than an equivalent gas-powered vehicle. In the eight other states, they thought that hybrid vehicles polluted least. So the Americans believe that no gas-powered vehicle pollutes less than vehicle that is partially or wholly electric.
According to a study that I worked on and on which I am collaborating with officials from the National Research Council Canada, vehicles that are partially or wholly electric always emit fewer greenhouse gases than equivalent gas-powered vehicles. This applies in Alberta, where 92% of the electricity is produced by fossil fuel, or in Manitoba, Quebec or Ontario.
We were saying earlier that the price of solar panels has dropped a lot. The price of batteries for electric vehicle has also dropped, by about 85% since 2010. We forecast that it will continue to do so, by about 50% by 2024-2025. The price of electric vehicles should therefore be equal to gas-powered vehicles by 2024-2025. In addition, the air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from electric vehicles are dropping year after year. Between 2013 and 2019, for batteries, the greenhouse gas emissions per kilowatt hour dropped by 65%. By 2024-2025, we anticipate a further decrease of 50%. In addition, as battery components are almost 95% recyclable, whereas gasoline is no longer recyclable once it is burned, electric vehicles will be 10 times less polluting than gas-powered vehicles.
Electric vehicles are therefore increasingly clean and efficient. In the same period of time, gas-powered vehicles are causing more and more pollution problems, because the technologies have not kept pace.