🔗 Share this article

The community kitchen in Rotherhithe has distributed hundreds of cooked meals weekly for two years to pensioners and needy locals in southeast London. However, the group's plans face major disruption by the news that they will not have cars and vans on New Year’s Day.

This organization had relied on Zipcar, the car-sharing company that allowed its cars via smartphone. It caused shock across London when it declared it would cease its UK business from 1 January.

This means many volunteers will be unable to pick up supplies from a major food charity, which gathers surplus food from supermarkets, cafes and restaurants. Obvious alternatives are further away, costlier, or do not offer the same convenient access.

“The impact will be massively,” said Vimal Pandya, the community kitchen’s founder. “My team and I are worried about the operational hurdle we will face. Many groups like ours will face difficulties.”

“Knowing the reality, everyone is concerned 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 who were car club members, who could be left without easy use to vehicles, avoiding the burden and cost of ownership. The vast majority of those members were probably with Zipcar, which had a near-monopoly position in the city.

The planned closure, pending consultation with staff, is a serious setback to hopes that vehicle clubs in cities could cut the need for owning a car. However, some experts also suggested that Zipcar’s exit need not mean the demise for the idea in Britain.

The Promise of Shared Mobility

Car sharing is prized by city planners and green advocates as a way of reducing the ills associated with vehicle ownership. Typically, vehicles sit as two-tonne dead weights on the side of the road for 95% of the time, occupying parking. They also involve large carbon emissions to produce, and people without a vehicle tend to walk, cycle and take transit more. That benefits cities – reducing 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 total earnings, and a deficit that reached £11.7m in 2024 gave no reason to continue.

The parent company stated the closure is part of a “broader transformation across our international business, where we are taking targeted actions to streamline operations, improve returns”.

Its latest financial reports said revenues had declined as drivers took fewer and shorter trips. “This trend reflect the continuing effect of the economic squeeze, which is dampening demand for non-essential services,” it said.

The Capital's Specific Challenges

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

• Patchwork Policies: Across 33 boroughs, car-club operators face a mosaic of varying processes and prices that complicate operations.
• Congestion Charge: The closure coincides with electric cars start paying London’s congestion charge, adding extra expenses.
• 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 per year, creating a significant barrier.

“Our fees should be one-twentieth of a resident’s permit,” said Robert Schopen of Co Wheels. “We remove vehicles. We’re putting less polluting cars in their place.”

A European Example

Other European countries offer models for London to follow. Germany enacted national shared mobility laws in 2017, providing a unified system 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.

“The evidence shows is that car sharing around the world, especially in Europe, is expanding,” said Bharath Devanathan of Invers.

Devanathan said authorities should start to view vehicle clubs as a form of mass transit, and integrate it with train and bus stations. He added that one unnamed client was already seriously considering entering the London market: “There will be fill this gap.”

What Comes Next?

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

1. Fleet Operators: Which maintain their own cars. Examples 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 – 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 already weighing up the UK gap. Rory Brimmer, its UK head, 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.

However, 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 the volunteers in Rotherhithe, the coming weeks will be a scramble to find a solution. The delivery problem caused by Zipcar’s exit highlights the broader impact of its departure on community groups and the prospects of shared mobility in the UK.