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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 pensioners and vulnerable locals in southeast London. However, the group's plans have been thrown into disarray by the news that they will not have cars and vans on New Year’s Day.

This organization depended on Zipcar, the car-sharing company that allowed its cars from the street. The company caused shock through the capital when it declared it would cease its UK operations from 1 January.

This means many volunteers cannot collect food from a major food charity, that collects surplus food from grocery stores, cafes and restaurants. Obvious alternatives are less convenient, more expensive, or do not offer the same flexible hours.

“It’s going to be affected massively,” said 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 Major Blow for City Vehicle Clubs

The community kitchen’s drivers are part of more than half a million people in London registered as car club members, now potentially left without convenient access to vehicles, without the hassle and cost of ownership. The vast majority of those people were probably with Zipcar, which had a near-monopoly position in the city.

The planned closure, pending consultation with employees, is a serious setback to hopes that vehicle clubs in urban areas could reduce the need for private vehicle ownership. However, some analysts have noted that Zipcar’s departure need not spell the end for the idea in Britain.

The Potential of Shared Mobility

Car sharing is prized by city planners and green advocates as a way of reducing the ills linked to vehicle ownership. Most cars sit as two-tonne dead weights on the street for the vast majority of the time, occupying parking. They also involve 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 public health through more exercise.

Understanding the Decline

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

The parent company stated the closure is part of a “wider restructuring across our international business, where we are taking targeted actions to streamline operations, enhance profitability”.

Zipcar’s most recent accounts said revenues had fallen as drivers took fewer and shorter trips. “These changes reflect the ongoing impact of the cost-of-living crisis, which continues to suppress demand for discretionary spending,” it said.

The Capital's Specific Hurdles

However, several experts noted that London has specific problems that made it much harder for the company and its rivals to succeed.

• Inconsistent Rules: Across 33 boroughs, car-club operators face a patchwork of different procedures and prices that complicate operations.
• New Costs: The closure coincides with electric cars becoming liable for London’s congestion charge, adding unavoidable costs.
• Unequal Parking Fees: Locals in some boroughs pay just £63 for a annual electric car parking permit. A similar shared vehicle would pay over £1,100 per year, creating a significant barrier.

“We should literally be charged one-twentieth of a resident’s permit,” said Robert Schopen of Co Wheels. “We remove vehicles. We introduce cleaner models in their place.”

A European Example

Nations in Europe offer models for London to follow. Germany enacted national shared mobility laws in 2017, providing a unified system for parking, subsidies and waivers. Now, the country has several 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 treat car sharing as a form of public transport, 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 roughly be divided into two camps:

1. Company-Owned Fleets: 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 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 “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.

However, it could take a while for other players to build momentum. In the meantime, more people may choose 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 logistical challenge caused by Zipcar’s exit underscores the broader impact of its departure on community groups and the future of car-sharing in the UK.