Don't forget calendar life. Lithium batteries degrade over time even if you do not cycle them. The life of the commonly used chemistries is only around 3 years.
But a lifetime of 3y doesn't jive with why my 7 year old vehicle is mostly fully functional. Even with 10% over-provisioning (amazingly expensive 7y ago), that's only a 15% reduction in 7 years.
The statement "The life of the commonly used chemistries is only around 3 years" is completely misleading and probably inaccurate.
I don't know about the 3 years number, but generally speaking battery lives are estimates/averages based on statistics. If you have a battery that was well cared for it will outperform the average. Also sometimes it's just dumb luck. One aberration isn't nearly enough data to throw out the entire premise
Phone batteries are lithium polymer pouch cells, the least durable type commonly used. Car cells with lithium ion NMC cylindrical cells are much better, and LIFEPO4 in turn is several times more durable than that.
You would be wise to insist on an EV with LIFEPO4 batteries in the sense that calendar lifetimes are more likely to be on par with traditional engines.
A 2013 Nissan Leaf should get 60-75 miles of range (depending on how much of thebattery you use, as well as climate, and other driving conditions). If it got ~80 miles new, it would still get 60 miles now. That might be enough for someone to make a short commute, though unless they have relatively fast charging at home, a 20+ mile commute 5 days a week might be tough to pull off. But most errands would fall well within the existing / remaining range.
50 mile round trip at 3 miles per kWh would be under 20kWh, or 1.6kW for 12 hours, about the same as a plug in heater on max, easily doable in a normal socket let alone a dedicated charge circuit.
Going to work, groceries and so on, the regular stuff.
If the city was walkable, you would not need such a thing as neighborhood car, you could just use a bike, but apparently as a society at many places we have decided that the cars are the best mode of transportation ever.
Your 2nd sentence has issues with reality.