“Every single bit of modern electronics would potentially be damaged: all TVs, radios, car and truck ignition systems, telephones, and pretty well everything else.”
This article notes minor damage to automobiles in testing:
Jeffrey Lewis, an arms control scholar, wrote in Foreign Policy in 2013, “(the) EMP Commission exposed 37 cars and 18 trucks to EMP effects in a laboratory environment. While EMP advocates claim the results of an EMP attack would be “planes falling from the sky, cars stalling on the roadways, electrical networks failing, food rotting,” the actual results were much more modest. Of the 55 vehicles exposed to EMP, six at the highest levels of exposure needed to be restarted. A few more showed “nuisance” damage to electronics, such as blinking dashboard displays.”
Nice job, if you can get it...
No idea who Jeff is, but I worked in several actual nuclear tests, including EMP hardening tests for military electronics with the Defense Nuclear Agency back in the '80s. I tend to believe what I saw. Popular Mechanics - not so much.
Since you've devolved into the "know-it-all" mode, what's your background?