🔗 Share this article

A community kitchen in Rotherhithe has been delivering a large number of prepared dishes weekly for two years to elderly residents and vulnerable locals in south London. Yet, their operations have been thrown into disarray by the announcement that they will not have use of New Year’s Day.

This organization had relied on Zipcar, the car-sharing company that allowed its fleet of vehicles from the street. It sent shockwaves across London when it declared it would shut down its UK business from 1 January.

It will mean many volunteers will be unable to pick up supplies from the Felix Project, which gathers excess produce from supermarkets, cafes and restaurants. Other options are further away, more expensive, or do not offer the same convenient access.

“The impact will be massively,” said Vimal Pandya, the project's founder. “My team and I are worried about the operational hurdle we will face. Many groups like ours are going to struggle.”

“Faced with this reality, they are all worried and thinking: ‘How are we going to carry on?”

A Significant Setback for City Vehicle Clubs

The community kitchen’s drivers are part of over 500,000 people in London registered as car club members, now potentially left without convenient access to vehicles, avoiding the burden and cost of ownership. The vast majority of those people were probably with Zipcar, which held a dominant position in the city.

This shutdown, pending consultation with employees, is a serious setback to hopes that vehicle clubs in urban areas could cut the need for private vehicle ownership. However, some experts also suggested that Zipcar’s departure need not spell the end for the concept in Britain.

The Promise of Car Sharing

Car sharing is prized by city planners and green advocates as a way of mitigating the ills linked to vehicle ownership. Most cars sit as two-tonne dead weights on the side of the road for 95% of the time, using up space. They also require large CO2 output to produce, and people who do not own cars tend to walk, cycle and take public transport more. That benefits cities – easing congestion and pollution – and improves people’s health through increased activity.

What Went Wrong?

The company started in 2000 before its acquisition by the US car rental group Avis Budget in 2013. Zipcar’s UK income barely registered compared with its parent company's overall annual revenue, and a deficit that reached £11.7m in 2024 gave little incentive to continue.

Avis Budget has said the closure is part of a “wider restructuring across our global operations, where we are taking deliberate steps to simplify processes, enhance profitability”.

Zipcar’s most recent accounts said revenues had declined as drivers took fewer and shorter trips. “These changes reflect the ongoing impact of the cost-of-living crisis, which is dampening demand for discretionary spending,” it said.

The Capital's Specific Challenges

However, industry observers noted that London has particular issues that made it difficult for the company and its rivals to succeed.

• Patchwork Policies: With numerous local councils, car-club operators face a mosaic of varying processes and prices that made it harder.
• New Costs: The closure comes as electric cars start paying London’s congestion charge, adding unavoidable costs.
• Unequal Parking Fees: Locals in some boroughs pay just £63 for a year’s electric car parking permit. A floating car club would pay over £1,100 annually, creating a major disincentive.

“Our fees should be one-twentieth of a resident’s permit,” argued Robert Schopen of Co Wheels. “We remove vehicles. We introduce cleaner models in their place.”

A European Example

Other European countries offer examples for London to follow. Germany introduced national shared mobility laws in 2017, providing a nationwide framework for parking, subsidies and exemptions. Now, the country has several shared cars per 10,000 people, while France has 2.1 and Belgium has 6.3. The UK trails at 0.7.

“The evidence shows is that car sharing around the world, particularly on the continent, is growing,” said Bharath Devanathan of Invers.

He suggested authorities should start to view vehicle clubs as a form of mass transit, and integrate it with train and bus stations. He added that a potential operator was looking at entering the London market: “Operators will fill this gap.”

The Future Landscape

The company’s competitors can roughly be divided into two models:

1. Company-Owned Fleets: Which own or lease their own cars. This includes Denmark’s GreenMobility, France’s Free2Move, and Germany’s Miles Mobility.
2. Peer-to-Peer Services: Which allow users to hire out their own vehicles via an app – a kind of Airbnb for cars. Players include Britain’s Hiyacar and the US’s Getaround and Turo.

Turo, a US-headquartered peer-to-peer platform, is assessing the UK gap. Rory Brimmer, its UK managing director, said there was a “significant chance” to win more users. “A space exists that is going to need to be filled, because London still needs to move,” Brimmer said.

Yet, it could take some time for other players to build momentum. For now, more people may choose to buy cars, and many across London will be without a convenient option.

For the volunteers in Rotherhithe, the coming weeks will be a scramble to find a solution. The logistical challenge caused by Zipcar’s exit highlights the wider implications of its departure on vital services and the prospects of shared mobility in the UK.