Miles Axlerod

Sir Miles Axlerod is the main antagonist of Cars 2.

Role in the film
"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 car behind the World Grand Prix, a three-country race he created that attracts the world’s top athletes—but it’s really an excuse to show off his new wonder-fuel, Allinol."

Though at first Professor Zundapp appears to be the main villain, while Axlerod is shown to support all participants in the World Grand Prix, including Lightning McQueen, 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 if hit with an electro-magnetic 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 they owned the largest untapped oil reserves in the world.

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 McMissile and 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 in the end of the movie, that he gets arrested on the charges of conspiracy to commit crime, murder, and embezzlement.

Trivia

 * His design resembles an extremely modified version of a Range Rover L322.
 * His license plate is ALT NRG, an abbreviation of "alternative energy".
 * 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 printed L. Mater states truthfully that B.L. made parts won't fit on other cars because of them not using standardized bolts.
 * According to the DVD commentary, the climactic confrontation between Mater and Axelrod was thought up early in production, so the filmmakers had to work backwards to make the audiences believe someone else was behind the plot to sabotage the World Grand Prix.
 * While on T.V, Miles Axlerod's deep voice engine almost sounds like Emperor Zurg or Darth Vader.