Early concepts of Cars 2 had considered a Russian car or 1967 Ford Corsair as the main villain instead of Miles. Axlerod's name apparently originated from an old joke his voice actor Eddie Izzard once told concerning the invention of the wheel and axle.
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 worked backwards from there to make Axlerod the ultimate bad guy and someone else the good guy, so that when it got up to the climax, everyone could see how brilliant Mater was in figuring out the whole thing.
History
Cars 2
Miles Axlerod in Cars 2.
Though at first Professor Zündapp appears to be the main villain of Cars 2 for driving the plot, it is revealed near the end of the film by Mater that Axlerod is behind everything. His supposed "alternative fuel" Allinol, 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 leaks oil, though he denies and pins it on the gasoline-powered Mater.
Axlerod is confronted by Mater.
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. His suspicions are confirmed when Axlerod disables the bomb to save himself. 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.
Whatever happened to Axlerod after his arrest by British authorities are left ambiguous. It is most likely that he was charged for murder, conspiracy, and fraud, sentenced to an unknown amount of prison time.
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 character that utilizes power more than speed.
Cars 3
Axlerod is a collectible on Sterling's glass shelf.
Miles Axlerod does not make a physical appearance in Cars 3, implying that he is still in prison. A photo of him appears on Sterling's shelves, which possibly signifies that Sterling (who otherwise never appeared) knew him before his arrest.
Miles is a 1978 Branford Axlerod, a fictional car from a fictional company. Miles' design resembles a Land Rover Defender 90. His license plate reads "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. His hood says his surname, "Axlerod", on it. He is painted dark green, with a grey and black roof.
Personality and traits
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.
Official profiles and statistics
Cars 2
Bios
"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."[1]
Cars 2: The Video Game
Bios
"After selling off his fortune and converting himself to an electric vehicle, Miles Axlerod can't help but draw attention. Now he's created the World Grand Prix, a three country race to highlight ALLINOL, his fantastic renewable wonder-fuel."
Miles' tires' texture repeats a leaf-shaped motif.
If one looks closely at his front wheels, they can see the words 'REGEN R8' meaning 'Regenerate'.
Miles' hood emblem is written his surname "Axelrod", as it resembles as the Land Rover Defender's hood emblem commonly written as "Land Rover" or "Defender". This explains that Miles Axelrod is a Land Rover Defender.
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 V8 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 Up.printed L. Mater appears to recognize this fact, as he claimed that B.L. made parts that will not 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 reused from Up.
Axlerod's personality is very similar to that of Waternoose (a major antagonist in Monsters, Inc.): both are portrayed as evil businessmen who are originally introduced as being friendly, both rely on deception as part of their motivations. They end up incarcerated after being exposed to the authorities. However, unlike Waternoose who only resorts to extreme measures in hopes of saving Monsters Inc. Axlerod is not above murder to secure his financial gains.
When Miles Axlerod drives, the horizontal lines across his wheels do not spin with the tires.
There are some clues that Axlerod was the villain the whole time.
At the Tokyo Party, he leaked oil and blamed it on Mater, despite it never occurring to the latter.
The mirrors from the engine from the photo look a lot like his.
Pure electrical Rover products never existed when the film was in development.
At the beginning of the London Race, he had an evil smile on his face.
Often, his last name "Axlerod" can be too easily misspelt and mistaken as "Axelrod".
