Do KEYWORD DIfficulty matter when targeting a long tailed keyword with little to no search volume?

For example, I have a client who wants EV charging station to rank in the top 3 for a specific area he's close to. We created the page and optimized. The keyword we're looking to rank is "EV charging station citynamehere". According to our tools like ahrefs and semrush, it's saying that the website will require a lot of links and optimized content to rank for EV charging Station alone, while EV charging station citynamehere has no volume data. I argued that we would still need a lot of links and optimized content to rank but there are opposing voices who belive it wouldn't matter since it's a long tail keyword because the city name is attached to the main keyword we are targeting.

I would like to know your thoughts on the matter. Although it's a "long tailed keyword", I do not belive the keyword difficulty for EV charging station should not be taken lightly.