The new twingo is the exact same price in constant euros as the first gen twingo that came out in 1993.

Besides that, prices of EVs are not more expensive over 5 or 10 years despite the shown price because you run them at a much much cheaper price : electricity is often cheaper than gas, the only real cost you would have to pay is tires and shock absorbers, breaks pads and disks get used a lot less because of regen, no belts or chains, no spark plugs, no oil change, no exhaust, no turbo, no belts driven AC, no starter motor, no alternators etc… All those things that cost a lot in mechanic repairs for most cars.

We have bought the smallest car that would satisfy all our needs (a small station wagon), and we use it as necessary.

My commute is outrageous BTW, 50+50km, at highway speed and with airco, that might already be a stretch for the Dacia Spring. I do it mostly by train though.

I would have thought that:

“Reducing car use is better than just replacing them. Cars as they cover a lot of difficult corner cases, but let’s offer good alternatives for the day to day life”

should be a pretty uncontroversial take, and yet I’m here discussing with people that want to use cars everyday, and cover the exceptions with the alternatives.

Easy there, we do ~15000 km/year, but ~4000 of those are on long trips. That’s “a significant fraction”. I didn’t say I spend all day every day in the car.

There are many logistical reasons why we still need one car, but we are actually also able to walk, bike, and use transit.

And I expect I spend more time on a train that you do. But it’s not always the most practical option.

Crossing the alps on a train means too many changes, with trains from different companies, and my bored kids (depends on the origin and destination, but it’s true in my case). Even using the plane, with all the associated changes and buffer times, usually takes 6 or 7 hours.

Holidays in the mountains also gets a hell of a lot harder without a car. That’s true in general, but it’s doubly so in the places where I like to go (less crowded secondary destinations). Public transport requires density, and the last thing I want in the mountains is high density.

Edit:

As I wrote in another message, I would have thought that:

“Reducing car use is better than just replacing them. Cars as they cover a lot of difficult corner cases, but let’s offer good alternatives for the day to day life”

should be a pretty uncontroversial take, and yet I’m here discussing with people that want to use cars everyday, and cover the exceptions with the alternatives.