A quarter of the way through the ’20s, it seemed like a good time to step back and look at the efforts to shift the U.S. auto industry to half zero-emission vehicles by 2030.

At this stage of the road trip, the team at Automotive News took a company-by-company look at the transition to electric vehicles as well as key government efforts on the matter. Check out the coverage on Pages 16-21.

The destination is pretty clear: Replacing millions of gasoline-burning vehicles with battery-powered ones every year. If half of the market is electric, it will be a big proof point that the industry is doing its part to address global warming and leave a livable planet for future generations. (Reducing pollution in the manufacturing process is also important, but separate, and harder to measure.)

EV share needs to grow tenfold by the end of the decade, and challenges abound: cost, quality, charging infrastructure.

Mining and mineral refining operations — such as semiconductor fabrication plants — can take years to set up. Disconnects in the investment horizons are bound to create market imbalances.

Work is needed on clean generation of electricity, secure transmission throughout the country and reliable distribution in all the places consumers expect to find it.

While EVs are mechanically simpler than those powered by internal combustion engines, they don’t yet seem to be simpler to execute. In J.D. Power’s recent Initial Quality Study, owners of new ICE vehicles reported 175 problems per 100 vehicles, or as I like to think of it: 1.75 problems per vehicle. Plug-in hybrids and non-Tesla EVs had more like 2.4 problems per vehicle. (Teslas, by the way, scored marginally better than other EVs.)

If EVs were a brand unto themselves, they would be in the bottom five for new-car quality.

Not surprisingly, EVs have also been prone to recalls and stop-sale warnings, including every one of Toyota’s only current electric nameplate, the bZ4X, and almost 50,000 Ford Mustang Mach-Es.

But these are small detours in the long road to 2030 and beyond.

On the one hand, it troubles me that as President Joe Biden sought to shift to 50 percent ZEV by 2030 — what is believed to be needed to stay on track with the Paris Agreement — he mostly got commitments to get to 40 percent and maybe 50 percent if that’s what the market demands.

When it comes to global warming, is 80 percent progress good enough?

Not really. But here’s the thing: Technology improvements may have the market demanding far more EVs than Biden could ever mandate.

In 2022, EVs are significantly more expensive than gasoline-powered autos, which are selling at dramatically higher prices than ever before. Costly batteries are the key issue. So most automakers are rolling out EV powertrains in higher-end vehicles first.

I can assure you: For $100,000 or more, you can buy a really nice electric vehicle.

Expanding federal support for EV sales could help, but ultimately, costs need to come down. Way down.

The manufacturing chief at Stellantis last week warned that the auto industry will collapse in the shift to EVs if prices don’t fall dramatically. The company’s goal: 40 percent cost reduction by 2030.

There’s that date again.

Solid-state batteries, which some companies aim to put on the road this decade, may be the key. But that industrial breakthrough may not be absolutely necessary.

General Motors and Honda are working on a compact crossover for the 2027 model year that is expected to cost less than the planned $30,000 electric Chevrolet Equinox. With a few key caveats — namely profitability and volume — this could be the turning point. A crossover with 200 miles of rated range for $27,000 — in 2027 dollars — could represent a tipping point in the market.

Consumers don’t want to be told what they can’t buy, but if they get a chance to buy something that is objectively better — quieter, more fun to drive and easier to own — for less money, there will be no holding them back.

With or without a $7,500 federal tax credit.