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The community kitchen in Rotherhithe has provided a large number of prepared dishes each week for the past two years to elderly residents and needy locals in southeast London. However, the group's plans have been thrown into disarray by the announcement that they will lose use of New Year’s Day.

The group had relied on Zipcar, the app-based vehicle rental service that customers to access its fleet of vehicles from the street. It sent shockwaves through the capital when it declared it would cease its UK operations from 1 January.

This means many helpers 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 flexible hours.

“The impact will be massively,” said Vimal Pandya, the community kitchen’s founder. “Personally me and my team are concerned by the operational hurdle we will face. A lot of people like ours are going to struggle.”

“Knowing the reality, they are all worried and thinking: ‘How are we going to carry on?”

A Significant Setback for Urban Car-Sharing

These volunteers are among more than half a million people in London who were 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 held a dominant position in the city.

The planned closure, 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. Yet, some experts also suggested that Zipcar’s exit need not mean the demise for the idea in Britain.

The Potential of Shared Mobility

Shared vehicle use is prized by many urbanists and environmentalists as a way of mitigating the ills linked to vehicle ownership. Most cars sit as two-tonne dead weights on the street 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 walk, cycle and take transit more. That helps urban areas – 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 revenues barely registered compared with its owner's total earnings, and a loss that reached £11.7m in 2024 gave no reason to continue.

The parent company stated the closure is part of a “wider restructuring across our global operations, where we are taking deliberate steps to simplify processes, improve returns”.

Its latest financial reports said revenues had fallen as drivers took fewer and shorter trips. “This trend reflect the continuing effect of the cost-of-living crisis, which continues to suppress demand for non-essential services,” it said.

London's Unique Challenges

Yet, several experts noted that London has specific problems that made it difficult 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 made it harder.
• New Costs: The closure coincides with electric cars becoming liable for London’s congestion charge, adding unavoidable costs.
• Parking Permit Disparity: Residents 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 private parking cost,” said Robert Schopen of Co Wheels. “We’re taking cars off the street. We’re putting less polluting cars in their place.”

A European Example

Other European countries offer models 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 trails at 0.7.

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

Devanathan said authorities should start to treat car sharing as a form of mass transit, and link 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.”

The Future Landscape

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

1. Fleet Operators: Which own or lease their own cars. Examples 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. Players include Britain’s Hiyacar and the US’s Getaround and Turo.

Turo, a US-headquartered P2P service, 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 establish themselves. For now, more people may choose to buy cars, and others across London will be left without access.

For the volunteers in Rotherhithe, the next month will be a scramble to find a solution. The logistical challenge caused by Zipcar’s exit highlights the broader impact of its departure on community groups and the prospects of car-sharing in the UK.