My friend recently did something similar, and was told he needed 120 amp service minimum. I'm not sure if he just over-did the level of charging he needed or what, but that was where the rest of the cost came from.
We've been getting on fine without a garage because our cars are used and not expensive. They also don't have massive battery packs that would cost more than a used car to replace, either.
The electrician was trying to make a buck if he recommended 120A to charge an EV. Practically no EV will even pull anywhere close to 120A on AC charging, most top out around 40-50A. And they're all designed to only pull whatever the Electrical Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) says its rated for, which is often a configurable setting on the EVSE.
My car can pull up to 48A. At home my EVSE is set to 40A, but I can set it to 32A, 24A, and 16A with a little switch inside the box. Even at 24A, at 240V that's 5,760W of power going to the car. Even if in the cold I was getting 2mi/kWh, charging for 8 hours overnight gives 90mi of range. You should be able to install at least a 40A charger and still have a couple 15/20A circuits for lights, additional outlets, and a heatpump. 8 hours of charging at that amperage would get you >150mi of range.
Putting it in a garage isn't going to stop the salt from the roads from rusting out the car. The car being outside isn't going to really put any additional wear on the battery, especially if it is plugged most of the time while parked at home.
EDIT, somehow I was thinking it was an 80 amp line not 60. Still, a 60 amp line could run a 40A charger and some lighting in the garage, probably not a lot of heating though.
We've been getting on fine without a garage because our cars are used and not expensive. They also don't have massive battery packs that would cost more than a used car to replace, either.