The Batmobile is a made‑up car that Batman drives in stories. It’s not sold to the public; it’s a special design built just for the movies and TV shows.
The Tucker 48 is a rare car from the 1940s that was built by a man named Preston Tucker. It had some new ideas for safety and speed, but only a few were made.
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Now, since the advent of both industries going mainstream, we'll hear from Jonathan Eisen, the Curator of the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. But first, apparently it's a Peterson Day on Daily Drive. We'll finish listening to our own Molly Boygon's conversation with Colin Hendrix of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. On Thursday's show, we heard the first part of that interview about the United States dependence on China for rare earth minerals.
In addition, Hendrix talks about the US government's role in any attempt to create a domestic rare earth supply chain. My question is, and obviously you don't have a crystal ball, but it strikes me that there would be, there would have to be a lot of investment by the US government to form this nascent sector to even begin to compete with China's, first of all, supply chain dominance and the sort of like integration of the full, full value chain
within China and then also for its willingness to push the boundaries of labor and environmental regulation. So, you know, it's sort of a complicated question, but how much would it take? Because it seems to me that it would be a lot.
You know, that's a really interesting question, and I'm not sure that I'm going to, I will say that I'm not going to embarrass myself by trying to give you a back of the envelope number that is going to be wildly wrong.
What I can say to try and try and kind of set expectations, though, is that even under optimal circumstances, I doubt that 20 years from now, the United States is going to be competing with China or some other third country
for market share in heavy rare earths, potentially in permanent magnets, but I think that that also is an open question.
I think that these supply chains that are being developed, right, and the equity stakes that have been taken in places like MP materials and Lithium Americas are more about having an insurance policy than they are about trying to move into a energy dominant space that the administration clearly wants to move into with fossil fuels.
For instance, and this is just because, again, like I said, the real problem with developing X China heavy rare earths and permanent magnet supply chains is that nobody's getting rich in China, refining heavy rare earths and making permanent magnets.
These are things that semi planned or directed economies, we might say, they have a mechanism for saying in order to do all of these downstream things that we want, we need to invest in this kind of loss leading
close to the primary sector. Market economies do not have that kind of mechanism. The presumption is that, well, if we want to build EVs here, we are going to need a lot of these materials and the market will sort this out and maybe get a little push from the government or not.
China has this advantage and this incredible amount of patience that is inherent in their political system that has allowed them to invest in these kind of low margin, loss leading activities that have enabled them to industrialize incredibly rapidly.
They identified a market failure and they solved it through state subsidization and then later consolidation.
For that reason, and also just the fact that the US final demand for many of these materials is in the single digits in terms of percentages of global demand. The market for these materials is always going to be larger outside of the United States than it is inside the United States.
And that's another reason why I think that the best way to conceive of the X China supply chains that do materialize in this space will be as an insurance policy, not as a leading sector for the US economy in the 21st century.
Colin Hendrix of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Thanks so much for joining us.
My pleasure.
When we come back, Peterson Automotive Museum, curator Jonathan Eisen, talks with our own Jerry Hirsch about the long standing partnership between the automotive and film industries.
That's next on this bonus episode of Daily Drive.
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Welcome back, as part of our Centennial anniversary at Automotive News.
Our own Jerry Hirsch spoke with Peterson Automotive Museum Curator, Jonathan Eisen, about the history of Hollywood in the auto industry and what brought the two together in the first place.
Here's a piece of their conversation.
So what European is the top car in film or television?
You know, that probably changes a bit with every generation, but certainly the Batmobile, as you mentioned, is one that everybody recognizes.
And obviously there's a different Batmobile for every generation of a person who grew up with the Batman, even going back to the comic books.
But you know, it helps that that car is a custom car in a one-of-a-kind car.
But you really only really need to see part of the Batmobile so know that that's Batman's car.
No matter what, you know, whether it's the one that Adam West drove on the TV show or the one that Michael Keaton drove in the early movies,
and then of course even the recent Christopher Nolan films that car was so distinct, you don't need to see the whole car.
You know, you can see a bit of it.
And obviously it's instantaneous.
And you know, another one that I like is James Bond's Aston Martin.
You know, Aston Martin being such an exclusive brand, a somewhat obscure brand, especially in America, that that car when you see it,
the first thing that comes to mind is James Bond.
You know, I think Bond and Aston Martin are inexplicably linked so much so that in the 90s, when they had Bond drive at BMW, people were kind of up in arms.
It's like, why would Bond drive at BMW? He drives an Aston Martin. It's a British car.
And it's just a special car and you instantly connected the bond.
What's your favorite in film history?
That's a very difficult question because there are so many.
There's ones where I like the car and there's ones where I recognize the car is important to the movie and to the character that drives it.
I'd say the one film where those two things meld together because I like sort of offbeat oddball cars.
It's probably the AMC Pacer from Wayne's World.
You know, that movie's a hilarious movie.
They picked a hilarious car.
It seems just wholly appropriate for Wayne to drive that car.
And it's, you know, a car that was made fun of.
And it just sort of fits that movie so perfectly.
And the second you see it, that blue fishbowl with the flames on the side, you kind of get chuckle.
And, you know, it's just wonderful.
And I love those cars.
That's another movie car that I like because when I was a kid, John Denver drove one in the movie.
Oh, God.
And my parents were big John Denver fans.
I always wanted a Pacer because it was John Denver's car.
What's your favorite movie about cars and why?
You know, that's another tough one.
Really, I'd say one of my favorites would be the Tucker movie.
Tucker, a man in his dream because it's a very, you know, it was an obscure slice of automotive history put on screen.
And it really was kind of, you know, the subtitle is perfect.
A man in his dream because it's this little way of talking about America and talking about, you know, the stereotypical American dream story.
Of course, when you dig in deeper to it, you start to wonder whether Tucker was kind of a shister.
But the way that the story is portrayed in the movie is the little guy who was, you know, kind of brought down by the big corporations.
You know, it's a it's a great tale that said a lot about this country and a lot about the automobile industry.
How it really was started by little guys and then has the industry grew.
It became dominated by a few companies that really wouldn't let anybody in.
And I think that's a that's an important tale to tell.
You can find our own Jerry Hersh's full report about the history of the relationship between Hollywood and the auto industry
and a video of his interview with Peterson Museum curator Jonathan Eisen on autonews.com.
Thanks for listening to this bonus episode of Daily Drive.
We'll be back on Monday with a brand new full episode of the show.
About this episode
Exploring the deep-rooted connection between Hollywood and the automotive industry, Jonathan Eisen from the Peterson Automotive Museum shares insights on iconic movie cars like the Batmobile and James Bond's Aston Martin. The discussion highlights how these vehicles have become symbols tied to their characters. Additionally, Colin Hendrix from the Peterson Institute delves into the U.S. reliance on China for rare earth minerals, emphasizing the challenges in establishing a domestic supply chain. This episode combines automotive history with current economic issues, making for a compelling listen.
Jonathan Eisen, curator of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, talks about the 100-plus-year-old partnership between the automotive and film industries. Plus, Cullen Hendrix of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, discusses the U.S. government’s role in any attempt to create a domestic rare earths supply chain.
