🔗 Share this article

The volunteer food project in Rotherhithe has distributed a large number of prepared dishes weekly for two years to elderly residents and needy locals in south London. Yet, their operations have been thrown into disarray by the news that they will not have use of New Year’s Day.

This organization had relied on Zipcar, the app-based vehicle rental service that allowed its fleet of vehicles from the street. The company caused shock across London when it said it would cease its UK operations from 1 January.

This means many helpers cannot pick up supplies from the Felix Project, which gathers surplus food from grocery stores, cafes and restaurants. Other options are less convenient, more expensive, or lack the same convenient access.

“It’s going to be affected massively,” said Vimal Pandya, the project's founder. “Personally me and my team are worried about the operational hurdle we will face. Many groups like ours will face difficulties.”

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

A Significant Setback 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, who could be left without easy use to vehicles, without the hassle and cost of ownership. Most of those people were likely with Zipcar, which had a near-monopoly position in the city.

The planned closure, pending consultation with employees, is a big blow to hopes that vehicle clubs in urban areas could cut the need for private vehicle ownership. However, some analysts have noted that Zipcar’s exit need not spell the end for the concept in Britain.

The Potential of Car Sharing

Car sharing is valued by city planners and environmentalists as a way of mitigating the ills linked to vehicle ownership. Typically, vehicles sit as two-tonne dead weights on the street for 95% 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 public transport more. That benefits cities – reducing congestion and pollution – and improves people’s health through increased activity.

What Went Wrong?

Zipcar was founded in 2000 before its acquisition by the American rental giant Avis Budget in 2013. Zipcar’s UK income barely registered compared with its owner's total earnings, and a loss 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 deliberate steps to simplify processes, improve returns”.

Zipcar’s most recent accounts noted revenues had declined as drivers took less frequent, shorter trips. “This trend reflect the continuing effect of the cost-of-living crisis, which is dampening demand for discretionary spending,” it said.

The Capital's Specific 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 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 just £63 for a year’s electric car parking permit. A floating car club would pay over £1,100 annually, creating a major disincentive.

“We should literally be charged one-twentieth of a private parking cost,” said Robert Schopen of Co Wheels. “We remove vehicles. We introduce cleaner models in their place.”

Lessons from Abroad

Other European countries offer examples for London to follow. Germany introduced national shared mobility laws in 2017, providing a unified system for parking, subsidies and waivers. Now, the country has 5.4 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, 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 a potential operator was looking at entering the London market: “There will be fill this gap.”

The Future Landscape

Other players can roughly be divided into two camps:

1. Company-Owned Fleets: Which maintain their own cars. Examples 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. Examples 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 head, 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.

However, it could take a while for other players to build momentum. For now, more people may feel forced to buy cars, and others across London will be without a convenient option.

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 shared mobility in the UK.