Heaven Forbid, you can't drive on the Santa Anna Freeway. LOL!
An EMP damages modern electronic devices by injecting an unexpected electrical current into their circuits and overloading them. The external wires that attach to most electronic devices (i.e., data cables and power cords) act as antennas that collect the pulse’s energy and funnel it straight into fragile circuits. The longer the wire to the device, the more EMP energy that wire directs into the interior of that device where it can do damage.
The more modern the circuits in a car or device, the more sensitive they are to smaller changes in current. So as our electronics get more advanced, shorter wires can collect enough current to overload them.
HEMP is not actually a thing preppers should worry about. Or, to be more precise, a HEMP attack on the continental US is a nuclear attack, so if it happens then it’ll be in the context of a full-scale nuclear war. In such a scenario, you’ve got far more immediate problems than a dead starter.
Solar EMPs are much more likely than any kind of man-made EMP, but a solar storm can’t generate the kinds of high-frequency EMP needed to knock out small electronics like those found in cars. So the more plausible solar EMP scenario is not a direct threat to your ride. (It is, however, an indirect threat via its impact on the country’s energy infrastructure, but more on that, below.)
All of society’s detailed knowledge about which cars will likely survive a nuclear-generated, high-altitude EMP (HEMP) and which won’t, is classified by various governments. But we do know enough to give some general guidelines:
The newer the car, the more vulnerable it is to HEMP.
Pre-1970’s cars are best, but are probably still vulnerable, depending on various factors.
Any car of any make/model/year needs its critical electrical parts to be protected by a metal Faraday cage for best results.
The fact that cars are made of metal does give them some limited shielding from EMP. But this spotty shielding just reduces the odds of damage by an unknown (and unknowable) degree that’s dependent on a ton of variables related to the blast and the vehicle.
Here’s a brief, incomplete list of the factors that will determine how your car responds to a HEMP:
The size and elevation of the nuclear blast
Geographic and seasonal variations in the earth’s magnetic field at both the location of the blast and the location of the vehicle
The location and physical orientation of the vehicle with respect to the blast
The amount and position of the metal parts of the car
The number, locations, and designs of the critical electronic systems inside the car
The length of the wires and cables attached to the vehicle’s electronics
All of the above factors and more work together to determine if a particular automobile in a particular place in the country survives an EMP of a particular size at a particular elevation.
What all of that “particular” talk in the previous sentence translates to in practical terms, is that in the wake of an EMP, my ’80s diesel farm tractor could have smoke coming out of its ignition, while your Tesla Model S parked a few states away could suffer a temporary, non-fatal glitch but remain drivable.
Why? Neither of us would be able to say with any confidence.
Even if you eliminate all the above variables in one stroke by enclosing your vehicle in a conductive Faraday cage, there’s still a high likelihood that you’re wasting your time with all this vehicular EMP-proofing. Because the main thing we know for certain about the “cars and EMP question” is this: finding a working vehicle will be among the least of your problems in a post-EMP scenario.
Actually getting around in the aftermath, and keeping your ride fueled, are much larger challenges.
Here is the key sentence in the information:
Finding a working vehicle will be among the least of your problems in a post-EMP scenario.
Some of this stuff really makes me laugh. I grew up on a fame in Missouri with 3 nuke
Minuteman Silos on the property. The teachers at the time were telling the children to:
Hide under your desk if the attack comes. True Information.
The Nukes are many times more powerful vs the 1950s/1960s weapons.
But you did make me smile at your post concerning a EMF / EMP device vs driving your electric vehicle.
Tom V.