I’m not as familiar with Spain, i’ve only been twice and both times to Barcelona, and yes, in Barcelona or other big cities like that you definitely don’t need a car.
But i can tell you that in France or Germany if you live on the outskirts or in smaller towns you probably want a car. Okay maybe in the Netherlands you can get away with just having a bike, but most of Europe still has a lot of rural areas that can be quite poorly connected and while there are some basic amenities even in small villages, there are things that you will need to go into a larger city for.
Public transport exists yes but it is not always the cheapest option, not always reliable (at least in Germany), and the routes can be convoluted sometimes.
For instance if i want to visit my in-laws who live just two towns over: it’s 20 min away by car, 40 min by bike, or 1 hour 15 min with public transport, and that involves one bus, a train, and another bus, because there is no direct route, and that assumes i catch all the connections on time.
My wife commutes 45 min to work by car and if she took public transport that would easily double the time if not more. And sometimes the train just doesn’t come, or is massively delayed, you miss your connection, you get to work over an hour late.
If nothing else having a car makes grocery shopping much easier. Hopefully you won’t need to use it for your daily commute, and yes, you can do a lot recreation-wise just with public transport, but you’ll still want one if you want to take trips out into the countryside.
I don’t know, it’s your choice, and it depends a lot on where you live, how good the public transportation is there, and so on, but i can only say that where i live it’s difficult to get by without one, at least for certain things.
(Maybe I really am too big of a Chinese stan at this point because I don’t like car culture that much but it might honestly may be useful depending on the situation).
Problem with EVs is that the charging infrastructure in Europe is nowhere near as good as it is in China. Again, it’s going to depend on your city or region. Some regions are starting to get it others still very lagging behind. A small hybrid would definitely work well though.
For instance if i want to visit my in-laws who live just two towns over: it’s 20 min away by car, 40 min by bike, or 1 hour 15 min with public transport, and that involves one bus, a train, and another bus, because there is no direct route, and that assumes i catch all the connections on time.
This is very true for most of northern Europe as well. I have relatives here in Sweden that live 40 minutes away by car but 2.5h if I were to travel by train/buss, assuming everything is on time - a complete joke.
For Spain I’d say outside of Madrid/Barcelona you’d like to have a car, having to stand and wait during eventual delays, or in between connecting transport is really impractical in the heat. Another issue is also the timetables, move out of the cities and there are definitely not 24/7 or 24/5 departures. In some places the best connections stop at 18 etc, even during the summer.
I’m not as familiar with Spain, i’ve only been twice and both times to Barcelona, and yes, in Barcelona or other big cities like that you definitely don’t need a car.
But i can tell you that in France or Germany if you live on the outskirts or in smaller towns you probably want a car. Okay maybe in the Netherlands you can get away with just having a bike, but most of Europe still has a lot of rural areas that can be quite poorly connected and while there are some basic amenities even in small villages, there are things that you will need to go into a larger city for.
Public transport exists yes but it is not always the cheapest option, not always reliable (at least in Germany), and the routes can be convoluted sometimes.
For instance if i want to visit my in-laws who live just two towns over: it’s 20 min away by car, 40 min by bike, or 1 hour 15 min with public transport, and that involves one bus, a train, and another bus, because there is no direct route, and that assumes i catch all the connections on time.
My wife commutes 45 min to work by car and if she took public transport that would easily double the time if not more. And sometimes the train just doesn’t come, or is massively delayed, you miss your connection, you get to work over an hour late.
If nothing else having a car makes grocery shopping much easier. Hopefully you won’t need to use it for your daily commute, and yes, you can do a lot recreation-wise just with public transport, but you’ll still want one if you want to take trips out into the countryside.
I don’t know, it’s your choice, and it depends a lot on where you live, how good the public transportation is there, and so on, but i can only say that where i live it’s difficult to get by without one, at least for certain things.
Honestly, I wouldn’t mind a Chinese EV, ngl
(Maybe I really am too big of a Chinese stan at this point because I don’t like car culture that much but it might honestly may be useful depending on the situation).
Problem with EVs is that the charging infrastructure in Europe is nowhere near as good as it is in China. Again, it’s going to depend on your city or region. Some regions are starting to get it others still very lagging behind. A small hybrid would definitely work well though.
Maybe a hybrid.
I just do not want to deal with the horrid gas prices in the future when I might actually need a vehicle.
This is very true for most of northern Europe as well. I have relatives here in Sweden that live 40 minutes away by car but 2.5h if I were to travel by train/buss, assuming everything is on time - a complete joke.
For Spain I’d say outside of Madrid/Barcelona you’d like to have a car, having to stand and wait during eventual delays, or in between connecting transport is really impractical in the heat. Another issue is also the timetables, move out of the cities and there are definitely not 24/7 or 24/5 departures. In some places the best connections stop at 18 etc, even during the summer.