🔗 Share this article

The community kitchen in Rotherhithe has distributed hundreds of cooked meals each week for two years to pensioners and needy locals in south London. Yet, the group's plans have been thrown into disarray by the announcement that they will not have access to New Year’s Day.

The group depended on Zipcar, the app-based vehicle rental service that allowed its fleet of vehicles from the street. The company caused shock across London when it said it would cease its UK operations from 1 January.

It will mean many helpers cannot collect food from a major food charity, that collects surplus food from grocery stores, cafes and restaurants. Obvious alternatives are further away, costlier, or lack the same flexible hours.

“It’s going to be affected massively,” said Vimal Pandya, the community kitchen’s founder. “My team and I are worried about the operational hurdle we will face. A lot of people like ours will face difficulties.”

“Faced with this reality, they are all worried and thinking: ‘How will we continue?’”

A Major Blow for City Vehicle Clubs

These volunteers are part of over 500,000 people in London who were car club members, now potentially left without easy use to vehicles, avoiding the burden and cost of ownership. Most of those people were likely with Zipcar, which held a dominant position in the city.

This shutdown, subject to consultation with staff, is a serious setback to hopes that vehicle clubs in urban areas could reduce the need for private vehicle ownership. However, some experts have noted that Zipcar’s exit need not spell the end for the concept in Britain.

The Potential of Car Sharing

Car sharing is prized by city planners and green advocates as a way of reducing the ills associated with vehicle ownership. Typically, vehicles sit idle on the side of the road for the vast majority of the time, using up space. They also involve large CO2 output to produce, and people who do not own cars tend to walk, cycle and take public transport more. That helps urban areas – easing congestion and pollution – and boosts public health through more exercise.

Understanding the Decline

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

Avis Budget has said the closure is part of a “broader transformation across our global operations, where we are taking targeted actions to streamline operations, improve returns”.

Zipcar’s most recent accounts noted revenues had declined as drivers took less frequent, shorter trips. “This trend reflect the continuing effect of the cost-of-living crisis, which continues to suppress demand for discretionary spending,” it said.

London's Unique Challenges

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

• Patchwork Policies: Across 33 boroughs, car-club operators face a patchwork of different procedures and prices that made it harder.
• New Costs: The closure coincides with electric cars start paying London’s congestion charge, adding extra expenses.
• Unequal Parking Fees: Residents in some boroughs pay as little as £63 for a year’s electric car parking permit. A similar shared vehicle would pay over £1,100 per year, creating a major disincentive.

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

Lessons from Abroad

Other European countries offer examples for London to follow. Germany enacted national car-sharing legislation in 2017, providing a nationwide framework for parking, support 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 lags behind at 0.7.

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

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

What Comes Next?

Other players can be split into two models:

1. Fleet Operators: Which maintain their own cars. Examples Denmark’s GreenMobility, France’s Free2Move, and Germany’s Miles Mobility.
2. Person-to-Person Rentals: Which allow users to rent 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 head, said there was a “big opportunity” 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 a while for other players to build momentum. In the meantime, more people may feel forced to buy cars, and many across London will be without a convenient option.

For Rotherhithe community kitchen, the next month will be a rush to find a solution. The delivery problem caused by Zipcar’s exit highlights the wider implications of its departure on community groups and the prospects of shared mobility in the UK.