I'm not sure about it mechanically or anything, but I'd give you props for using a super beetle as a BOV, it'd be cool!

In all seriousness, yeah, EMPs don't seem like that much of a threat, you can also look into diesel. My father ran a diesel suburban for a couple hours w/o an alternator, batteries died, it wouldn't shift out of first or second (25mph, automatic, go standard!) but it got him where he was going.