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The volunteer food project in Rotherhithe has provided a large number of cooked meals each week for the past two years to elderly residents and vulnerable locals in southeast London. However, their operations face major disruption by the news that they will lose use of New Year’s Day.

This organization depended on Zipcar, the app-based vehicle rental service that customers to access its cars from the street. The company caused shock across London when it said it would shut down its UK operations from 1 January.

It will mean many volunteers cannot pick up supplies from a major food charity, which gathers excess produce 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 community kitchen’s founder. “My team and I are concerned by the operational hurdle we will face. Many groups like ours are going to struggle.”

“Faced with this reality, everyone is concerned and thinking: ‘How will we continue?’”

A Significant Setback for Urban Car-Sharing

The community kitchen’s drivers are among 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 likely with Zipcar, which had a near-monopoly position in the city.

The planned closure, subject to consultation with staff, is a big blow to hopes that vehicle clubs in cities could reduce the need for private vehicle ownership. Yet, some experts also suggested that Zipcar’s exit need not mean the demise for the concept in Britain.

The Potential of Car Sharing

Car sharing is prized by city planners and green advocates as a way of mitigating the problems associated with vehicle ownership. Typically, vehicles sit idle on the side of the road for the vast majority of the time, occupying parking. They also require large carbon emissions to produce, and people without a vehicle tend to walk, cycle and take transit more. That helps urban areas – reducing congestion and pollution – and improves people’s health through increased activity.

Understanding the Decline

The company started in 2000 before being bought by the American rental giant Avis Budget in 2013. Zipcar’s UK revenues were minimal compared with its parent company's total earnings, and a deficit that reached £11.7m in 2024 gave little incentive to continue.

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

Its latest financial reports said revenues had fallen as drivers took fewer and shorter trips. “These changes reflect the ongoing impact of the economic squeeze, which is dampening demand for non-essential services,” it said.

London's Unique Challenges

However, industry observers noted that London has specific problems 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 different procedures and prices that complicate operations.
• New Costs: The closure coincides with electric cars start paying London’s congestion charge, adding unavoidable costs.
• Parking Permit Disparity: Locals 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 significant barrier.

“Our fees should be one-twentieth of a private parking cost,” argued Robert Schopen of Co Wheels. “We remove vehicles. We’re putting less polluting cars in their place.”

Lessons from Abroad

Nations in Europe offer examples for London to follow. Germany enacted national car-sharing legislation in 2017, providing a unified system for parking, support and exemptions. Now, the country has 5.4 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 expanding,” commented Bharath Devanathan of Invers.

Devanathan said authorities should start to treat car sharing 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 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. Person-to-Person Rentals: 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.

One company, 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.

However, it could take some time for other players to build momentum. In the meantime, more people may choose to buy cars, and many across London will be left without access.

For the volunteers in Rotherhithe, the coming weeks will be a rush to find a way. The logistical challenge caused by Zipcar’s exit highlights the broader impact of its departure on community groups and the prospects of shared mobility in the UK.