🔗 Share this article

The volunteer food project in Rotherhithe has been delivering hundreds of prepared dishes weekly for two years to pensioners and needy locals in south London. Yet, their operations face major disruption by the news that they will lose cars and vans on New Year’s Day.

This organization had relied on Zipcar, the app-based vehicle rental service that customers to access its fleet of vehicles via smartphone. The company sent shockwaves through the capital when it declared it would shut down its UK business from 1 January.

This means many volunteers cannot collect food from a major food charity, that collects surplus food from supermarkets, cafes and restaurants. Other options are less convenient, more expensive, or do not offer the same flexible hours.

“The impact will be massively,” stated Vimal Pandya, the project's founder. “My team and I are concerned by the operational hurdle we will face. Many groups 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

The community kitchen’s drivers are part of more than half a million people in London registered as car club members, who could be 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 staff, is a big blow to the vision 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 Shared Mobility

Shared vehicle use is valued by city planners and environmentalists as a way of mitigating the ills associated with 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 involve large carbon emissions to produce, and people who do not own cars tend to use active travel and take transit more. That benefits cities – reducing congestion and pollution – and improves people’s health through increased activity.

What Went Wrong?

Zipcar was founded in 2000 before being bought by the US car rental group Avis Budget in 2013. Zipcar’s UK income barely registered compared with its parent company's total earnings, and a loss that grew to £11.7m in 2024 gave no reason to continue.

The parent company stated the closure is part of a “wider restructuring across our international business, where we are taking deliberate steps to streamline operations, enhance profitability”.

Its latest financial reports said revenues had fallen as drivers took less frequent, shorter trips. “These changes reflect the continuing effect of the cost-of-living crisis, which continues to suppress demand for discretionary spending,” it said.

The Capital's Specific Challenges

Yet, industry observers noted that London has particular issues that made it much harder for the sector to succeed.

• Patchwork Policies: Across 33 boroughs, car-club operators face a mosaic of varying processes and costs that made it harder.
• New Costs: The closure coincides with electric cars becoming liable for London’s congestion charge, adding unavoidable costs.
• Unequal Parking Fees: Locals in some boroughs pay as little as £63 for a annual electric car parking permit. A similar shared vehicle would pay over £1,100 per year, creating a significant barrier.

“Our fees should be one-twentieth of a private parking cost,” said Robert Schopen of Co Wheels. “We remove vehicles. We introduce cleaner models in their place.”

Lessons from Abroad

Nations in Europe offer models for London to follow. Germany introduced national car-sharing legislation in 2017, providing a nationwide framework for parking, subsidies and waivers. Now, the country has 5.4 shared cars per 10,000 people, while France has 2.1 and Belgium has 6.3. The UK trails at 0.7.

“What we see is that car sharing around the world, especially in Europe, is expanding,” said Bharath Devanathan of Invers.

Devanathan said authorities should start to treat car sharing as a form of public transport, and link it with train and bus stations. He added that a potential operator was looking at entering the London market: “There will be fill this gap.”

What Comes Next?

The company’s competitors can be split into two models:

1. Company-Owned Fleets: Which maintain 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 rent out their own vehicles via an app – similar to 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 “big opportunity” to win more users. “There is a void 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 left without access.

For Rotherhithe community kitchen, the coming weeks will be a scramble to find a way. The delivery problem caused by Zipcar’s exit highlights the wider implications of its departure on community groups and the prospects of car-sharing in the UK.