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A community kitchen in Rotherhithe has provided a large number of prepared dishes each week for the past two years to pensioners and vulnerable locals in southeast London. Yet, their operations face major disruption by the news that they will lose access to New Year’s Day.

This organization depended on Zipcar, the app-based vehicle rental service that customers to access its fleet of vehicles via smartphone. It caused shock through the capital when it said it would cease its UK operations from 1 January.

This means many volunteers will be unable to pick up supplies from the Felix Project, that collects excess produce from grocery stores, cafes and restaurants. Other options are further away, costlier, or lack the same flexible hours.

“The impact will be massively,” stated Vimal Pandya, the community kitchen’s founder. “My team and I are worried about the logistical challenge we will face. A lot of people like ours are going to struggle.”

“Faced with this reality, everyone is concerned and thinking: ‘How are we going to carry on?”

A Significant Setback for Urban Car-Sharing

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 easy use to vehicles, avoiding the burden and cost of ownership. Most of those people were probably with Zipcar, which had a near-monopoly position in the city.

This shutdown, pending consultation with employees, is a serious setback to hopes that car sharing in cities could reduce the need for private vehicle ownership. However, some experts also suggested that Zipcar’s departure need not mean the demise for the idea in Britain.

The Promise of Car Sharing

Car sharing is valued by many urbanists and green advocates as a way of mitigating the problems associated with vehicle ownership. Most cars sit as two-tonne dead weights on the side of the road for the vast majority of the time, using up space. They also involve large carbon emissions to produce, and people without a vehicle tend to use active travel and take public transport more. That helps urban areas – easing congestion and pollution – and improves people’s health through more exercise.

What Went Wrong?

The company started in 2000 before being bought by the US car rental group Avis Budget in 2013. Zipcar’s UK revenues were minimal compared with its owner's overall annual revenue, and a loss 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 international business, where we are taking deliberate steps to streamline operations, enhance profitability”.

Zipcar’s most recent accounts noted revenues had declined as drivers took fewer and shorter trips. “This trend reflect the ongoing impact of the economic squeeze, which is dampening demand for non-essential services,” it said.

The Capital's Specific Hurdles

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

• Inconsistent Rules: Across 33 boroughs, car-club operators face a mosaic of different procedures and prices that complicate operations.
• Congestion Charge: The closure coincides with electric cars becoming liable for London’s congestion charge, adding extra expenses.
• Unequal Parking Fees: Residents in some boroughs pay as little as £63 for a annual electric car parking permit. A floating car club would pay over £1,100 per year, creating a major disincentive.

“Our fees should be one-twentieth of a resident’s permit,” argued Robert Schopen of Co Wheels. “We’re taking cars off the street. We’re putting less polluting cars in their place.”

Lessons from Abroad

Nations in Europe offer examples for London to follow. Germany enacted national shared mobility laws 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 trails at 0.7.

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

He suggested authorities should start to view vehicle clubs as a form of mass transit, 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.”

The Future Landscape

Other players can be split into two camps:

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. Examples Britain’s Hiyacar and the US’s Getaround and Turo.

One company, a US-headquartered peer-to-peer platform, is already weighing up the UK gap. Rory Brimmer, its UK head, said there was a “significant chance” to win more users. “There is a void that is going to need to be filled, because London still needs to move,” Brimmer said.

However, it could take some time for other players to establish themselves. For now, more people may feel forced to buy cars, and many across London will be without a convenient option.

For Rotherhithe community kitchen, the coming weeks will be a rush to find a way. The logistical challenge caused by Zipcar’s exit underscores the wider implications of its departure on vital services and the future of car-sharing in the UK.