Miles Axlerod is the main antagonist of Cars 2. He was a rich oil baron, before his arrest in London for destroying the climax of the World Grand Prix, his own scam of an event.
Axlerod is a former oil baron who has sold off his fortune, converted himself into an electric vehicle and has devoted his life to finding the renewable, clean-burning energy source of the future — ultimately discovering what he believes is the fuel everyone should be using. Axlerod is also the host of the World Grand Prix, a three-country race he created that attracts the world’s top athletes to promote his new clean burning fuel, Allinol.
Cars 2
Though at first Professor Zündapp appears to be the main villain, it is revealed near the end of the film by Mater that Axlerod is actually the villain. His supposed "alternative fuel" was actually gasoline engineered to expand and eventually explode if hit with an electromagnetic pulse, and was part of a plot to turn the world against alternative energy and have them rely on gasoline, bringing profits to the lemons and himself due to the fact that they own the largest untapped oil reserves in the world. At a party promoting the World Grand Prix, he leaked oil on the floor, proving that he wasn't an electric car; he blamed it on Mater.
Keep away, you idiot!
Eventually, Axlerod arranges for Zündapp and the lemon cars to plant a bomb on Mater's air filter as a backup plan to kill Lightning McQueen. Mater later discovers the story about the conspiracy after helping Finn McMissile and Holley Shiftwell arrest Zündapp and the lemon cars, and confronts Axlerod for it, and his suspicions are confirmed when he forces Axlerod into deactivating the bomb with a voice command in order to keep the bomb from killing himself since he would have been caught in the blast. To proceed further, Mater opens Axlerod's hood, revealing the same engine (a Rover V8) as the unseen mastermind depicted in the photo, which Finn and Holley obtained from their American counterpart earlier, proving to be a perfect match. It is not told what happened to Axlerod after having his plot exposed. But it can be implied that in the end of the movie, he gets arrested on the charges of conspiracy to commit crime, murder and embezzlement, since he is last seen being surrounded by several police cars.
Cars 2: The Video Game
In Cars 2: The Video Game, Miles is an unlockable playable character, available once access to Clearance Level 5 is granted. He is a heavy weight that utilizes more power than speed.
Personality
Charming as he seems, Miles is a villain. He is evil, greedy, deceptive and manipulative. Miles is also clearly a smart thinker, as he had thought the entire plan to get rid of Allinol through, as he set everything up to make him look like an innocent car. At the end, he was proven to be the villain.
Livery
Miles is painted dark green, with chrome rims and a black roof.
Model
His design resembles an extremely modified version of a Range Rover L322.
His license plate is ALT NRG, an abbreviation of "alternative energy". However, before his "electric conversion" (ultimately a lie), he does not appear to have a license plate at all.
Occupation
Miles was formerly the creator of Allinol, before his arrest in London.
Miles' tires' texture repeats a leaf-shaped motif.
If you look closely at his front wheels, you can see the words 'REGEN R8' meaning 'Regenerate'.
Miles uses a lot of parts made by "British Wheeland" to keep himself going. "British Wheeland" is a parody of British Leyland, which produced both the Range Rover and the notoriously unstable V-8 engine that powered them. Even the logo was a parody of British Leyland's, using a big bold printed W instead of the big bold File:Where have I seen that before?.pngMiles emerging from the jungle from Upprinted L. Mater states truthfully that B.L. made parts that won't fit on other cars because of them not using standardized bolts.
The jungle Miles gets lost in before he converts to an electric vehicle is the jungle from Up.
The DVD commentary for Cars 2 states that the climax where Mater confronts Axlerod at Buckingham Palace over the plot to sabotage the World Grand Prix came rather early in production, so the Pixar team went backwards from there to make Axlerod the ultimate good guy and someone else the bad guy, so that when it got up to the climax, everyone could see how brilliant Mater was in figuring out the whole thing.
Before coming up with Axlerod, Pixar had considered a Russian super car as the main villain.
Axlerod's name apparently originated from an old joke his voice actor Eddie Izzard actually once told concerning the invention of the wheel and axle.
Along with Grem, Acer, Professor Z and Victor Hugo, Axlerod is playable in Cars 2: The Video Game, even though they are villains. However, it could be that the tracks are actually part of the simulation, so it's possible that they are part of it as well.
Axlerod's personality is very similar to that of Waternoose (one of the main antagonists from Monsters, Inc.): both are portrayed as evil businessmen who are originally introduced as being friendly, both rely on deception as part of their motivations, and both are ultimately defeated by being exposed by the heroes as villains and being subsequently arrested.
Quotes
"Miles Axlerod: "Ah! He's a little excited, isn't he?" Lightning McQueen: "Mater!" Mater: "But wait, I... Oh, shoot!" Lightning McQueen: "Mater!" Miles Axlerod: "Has anyone got a towel?" Lightning McQueen: "Mater, you have to get a hold of yourself! You're making a scene!" Mater: "But I never leak oil. Never." Lightning McQueen: "Go take care of yourself right now!""
—When he was leaking oil and blamed Mater for it., [[{{{3}}}]]
"Lightning McQueen: "Sir Axlerod." Miles Axlerod: "I'm sorry to interrupt." Lightning McQueen: "No, no. It - it's all right." Miles Axlerod: "I just wanted to come down here, and to personally thank you. Because after Italy, I was finished, and then you gave me one last shot." Lightning McQueen: "Listen, I. . ." Miles Axlerod: "I probably shouldn't be saying this at all, but I hope you win today. You show the world that they've been wrong about Allinol." Sally Carrera: "Mater would want you to race." Lightning McQueen: "All right. For Mater.""
—Miles "thanks" Lightning for deciding to use Allinol for the race in London., [[{{{3}}}]]
"Deactivate!"
"How did the tow truck figure it out?" (Axlerod's last words)