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A community kitchen in Rotherhithe has been delivering a large number of cooked meals weekly for the past two years to elderly residents and needy locals in southeast London. However, their operations face major disruption by the announcement that they will lose use of New Year’s Day.

The group had relied on Zipcar, the car-sharing company that customers to access its fleet of vehicles via smartphone. The company sent shockwaves through the capital when it said it would shut down its UK operations from 1 January.

This means many volunteers will be unable to pick up supplies from the Felix Project, that collects surplus food from supermarkets, cafes and restaurants. Obvious alternatives are further away, costlier, or do not offer the same convenient access.

“It’s going to be affected massively,” said Vimal Pandya, the project'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.”

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

A Major Blow for City Vehicle Clubs

The community kitchen’s drivers are among over 500,000 people in London who were car club members, now potentially left without convenient access to vehicles, without the hassle and cost of ownership. Most of those members were probably with Zipcar, which held a dominant position in the city.

The planned closure, pending consultation with employees, is a big blow to the vision that car sharing in cities could reduce the need for private vehicle ownership. Yet, some analysts have noted 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 green advocates as a way of reducing the ills associated with vehicle ownership. Typically, vehicles sit idle on the side of the road for 95% of the time, using up space. They also require large carbon emissions to produce, and people without a vehicle tend to use active travel and take transit more. That helps urban areas – easing congestion and pollution – and improves people’s health through more exercise.

What Went Wrong?

Zipcar was founded in 2000 before its acquisition by the US car rental group Avis Budget in 2013. Zipcar’s UK income were minimal compared with its parent company's overall annual revenue, and a loss that grew to £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 streamline operations, improve returns”.

Its latest financial reports said revenues had fallen as drivers took less frequent, shorter trips. “This trend reflect the continuing effect of the economic squeeze, which is dampening demand for discretionary spending,” it said.

London's Unique Hurdles

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

• Patchwork Policies: With numerous local councils, car-club operators face a mosaic of different procedures and prices that made it harder.
• New Costs: The closure coincides with electric cars becoming liable for London’s congestion charge, adding extra expenses.
• 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.

“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 introduce cleaner models in their place.”

A European Example

Other European countries offer models for London to follow. Germany introduced national car-sharing legislation in 2017, providing a nationwide framework 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.

“What we see is that shared mobility around the world, particularly on the continent, is growing,” said Bharath Devanathan of Invers.

Devanathan said authorities should start to view vehicle clubs 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: “There will be fill this gap.”

The Future Landscape

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

1. Fleet Operators: Which maintain 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 assessing 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.

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

For Rotherhithe community kitchen, the next month will be a rush to find a solution. The delivery problem caused by Zipcar’s exit highlights the broader impact of its departure on vital services and the future of car-sharing in the UK.