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The volunteer food project in Rotherhithe has provided hundreds of prepared dishes each week for two years to elderly residents and needy locals in south London. However, their operations face major disruption by the announcement that they will not have use of New Year’s Day.

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

It will mean many volunteers will be unable to pick up supplies from the Felix Project, which gathers surplus food from grocery stores, cafes and restaurants. Other options are further away, costlier, 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 logistical challenge we will face. A lot of people like ours will face difficulties.”

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

A Significant Setback for City Vehicle Clubs

These volunteers are part of over 500,000 people in London who were car club members, who could be left without convenient access to vehicles, without the hassle and cost of ownership. Most of those members were probably with Zipcar, which had a near-monopoly position in the city.

The planned closure, subject to consultation with staff, is a serious setback to the vision that vehicle clubs in cities could reduce the need for owning a car. Yet, some analysts 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 many urbanists and environmentalists as a way of mitigating the problems associated with vehicle ownership. Most cars sit as two-tonne dead weights on the street 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 public transport more. That benefits cities – reducing congestion and pollution – and boosts public health through increased activity.

Understanding the Decline

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 total earnings, and a loss that reached £11.7m in 2024 gave no reason to continue.

Avis Budget has said the closure is part of a “broader transformation across our international business, where we are taking deliberate steps to simplify processes, enhance profitability”.

Its latest financial reports noted revenues had declined 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.

The Capital's Specific Hurdles

However, several experts noted that London has particular issues that made it difficult for the sector to succeed.

• Patchwork Policies: Across 33 boroughs, car-club operators face a patchwork of different procedures and prices that complicate operations.
• Congestion Charge: The closure comes as 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 annual electric car parking permit. A floating car club would pay over £1,100 per year, creating a significant barrier.

“We should literally be charged one-twentieth of a resident’s permit,” argued Robert Schopen of Co Wheels. “We’re taking cars off the street. We introduce cleaner models in their place.”

Lessons from Abroad

Other European countries 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 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 shared mobility around the world, particularly on the continent, is expanding,” said Bharath Devanathan of Invers.

He suggested authorities should start to treat car sharing as a form of public transport, and integrate it with train and bus stations. He added that a potential operator was looking at entering the London market: “Operators will 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. Person-to-Person Rentals: Which allow users to hire out their own vehicles via an app – similar to Airbnb for cars. Players include Britain’s Hiyacar and the US’s Getaround and Turo.

One company, 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. “A space exists that is going to need to be filled, because London still needs to move,” Brimmer said.

Yet, it could take a while for other players to establish themselves. For now, more people may feel forced to buy cars, and many across London will be left without access.

For Rotherhithe community kitchen, the next month will be a scramble to find a solution. The delivery problem caused by Zipcar’s exit underscores the wider implications of its departure on vital services and the prospects of car-sharing in the UK.