This is one of the reasons I'm confused that the coal industry isn't pushing EVs as hard as possible. A huge surge in electricity demand from EVs is one of the few legitimate reasons I can think of to halt the trend of shutting down coal plants, at least in the short term (though coal's still screwed in the long-term as it should rightly be).
A lot of the coal plants that have shut down were not competitive on a cost basis (i.e. they were losing money because they were selling electricity for less than it cost them to make it). Churning out more expensive power would not make them competitive again. The coal industry really should have bought all the solar/wind companies 10 years ago to stay in business! Many nuclear plant have the same problem of high fixed costs.
More EVs certainly provides more electricity demand. Increasing demand could increase prices, but also would increase the incentive for building out more solar and wind (which have low fixed costs and now provide electricity at rates lower than coal or nuclear plants). I certainly could be wrong, but I think we would see a surge in solar/wind installations and not a big enough price increase to make coal plants competitive.
