Inflation for common items is 3%. Price of uranium sometimes increases by 90%.
Now, I may have exaggerated with 100 trillion expense, but here is my latest view.
Electric car buying: 6 trillion to 12 trillion dollars currently for 200 million cars, could double in 10 years, which means it could cost up to 24 trillion by the time nuclear power plants begin producing.
Electric car, current consumption and industry electricity use.
USA uses about 4000 terrawatts of energy.
Having all cars as electric cars would add another 4000 terrawatts to consumption, which means 10 trillion dollars would need to be payed for power plants currently, however, if people wait, the price of powerplant could go up.
Industry converted to electric would add another 1000 terrawats. Current total, you would need 500 large nuclear power plants of 1 gigawatt each, each costing 10 billions, to power current USA consumption, which is 4000 terrawats, so 5 trillions under current prices. Electric cars would add another 4000 terrawats, so you would need another 500. Industry converted to electric would add another 1000 terrawats, so you would need another 100.
So over 1000 nuclear power plants for these alone, would cost 10 billion each, which is over 10 trillion total. But expenses dont stop there.
Maintaining nuclear power plants is where the new problem rises. Nuclear power plant employs at least 500 workers, which means it spends 50,000,000 per year on wages alone, which is about 2 billions in 40 years per plant. For 1000 plants, that would cost 2 trillions during 40 years. This is just for wages, assuming same prices of goods as they are now. However, with inflation, this would likely be far greater after 40 years.
But then there is the cost of uranium which could add another 300 billion over 40 years, assuming prices of uranium dont go up due to high demand.
Converting planes to electric: This is right now probably even impossible with huge planes, but big airplanes would require huge batteries which would cost a lot to make. They would also add a lot to electricity consumption. Air planes in USA probably use over 100 billion liters of fuel. This likely means electric planes would add over 1000 terrawats to consumption, which would require 100 more power plants.
Converting ships to electric: Ships would also require large batteries like planes, and they use lots of fuel too, so likewise would use lots of electricity too.
Converting trucks to electric: Trucks require bigger batteries than cars do, and trucks would consume more electricity. Trucks would likely add around 1000 terrawats to electricity consumption, so another 100 nuclear plants would have to be built for them.
Converting industry to electric: Lots of money would need to be payed to replace machines powered by fuel with machines powered by electricity.
Converting military planes, tanks and transport and other vehicles to electric: USA has thousands of military planes, military trucks, transporters, tanks, battle vehicles...ect. All these would have to be adjusted to work on battery power. US military spends lots of fuel: 16,000,000,000 liters of fuel per year. But if tanks and airplanes were converted to be powered by batteries, they would not only require much more expensive batteries than the ones in cars, but they would use more electricity. With over 30,000 vehicles and planes, and price of battery being at least ten times that of a car, about 80,000, it could cost 2,400,000,000 dollars and with other parts being replaced and with cost of replacement and workforce, it could cost up to 50 billions.
It will also be necessary to invest in battery research, as current batteries arent good enough to power tanks or military aircraft.
Further, US military uses about 5% of total US fuel, but it would likely use more than 5% of total electric energy if it went full electric, which would be about 500 terrawats, so 50 more nuclear power plants would be required for military alone.
Resource shortage is another problem. If there is shortage of any raw material needed for batteries or power plants, their price will go up. But with 100 times increased demand for batteries in case of cars, and with expensive batteries needed for planes and ships, it is very likely demand would drive the price up.
Factories for batteries would also have to be built, as increase in demand by 100 times means much more battery factories have to be payed for than what we have now. Those factories would also use electicity, adding to expense and would add to demand as well.
So between 1400 to 2000 nuclear power plants of 1 gigawatt would have to be built to power a completely electric USA.
With 10 billion per power plant, that costs 14,000,000,000,000 or 14 trillions. Add to that the wages for workers at power plants, thats additional 2,5 trillions.
Buying 200 million electric cars would likely cost over 20 trillion in 10 years.
So thats 36 trillion in total.
Now, the price to convert military vehicles and aircraft to electrical, and the price to convert commercial planes to electrical, is a bit unknown, because I dont know if they have to take them apart and build them from start or not.
However, there is one more problem, especially in USA. The population doesnt want electric cars. So anyone investing 14 trillions to build 1400 nuclear power plants would have no guarantee that there will be buyers for his electricity, as there is no guarantee that all or even majority of people will switch to electric cars. So in case someone invests 14 trillions and people dont switch to electric after 10 years, he would be at the huge loss with no market for electricity he produces. This would stop people from investing in nuclear power plants.
