🔗 Share this article

The volunteer food project in Rotherhithe has provided hundreds of prepared dishes each week for two years to elderly residents and vulnerable locals in southeast London. Yet, the group's plans have been thrown into disarray by the announcement that they will lose cars and vans on New Year’s Day.

The group depended on Zipcar, the app-based vehicle rental service that customers to access its fleet of vehicles via smartphone. The company sent shockwaves across London when it declared it would shut down its UK operations from 1 January.

This means many volunteers will be unable to collect food from a major food charity, which gathers excess produce from grocery stores, cafes and restaurants. Obvious alternatives are further away, more expensive, or lack the same flexible hours.

“It’s going to be affected massively,” said Vimal Pandya, the community kitchen’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 will we continue?’”

A Major Blow for Urban Car-Sharing

The community kitchen’s drivers are part of more than half a million people in London who were car club members, now potentially left without easy use to vehicles, without the hassle and cost of ownership. The vast majority of those members were probably with Zipcar, which held a dominant position in the city.

This shutdown, subject to consultation with employees, is a big blow to the vision that car sharing in urban areas could cut the need for private vehicle ownership. However, some experts have noted that Zipcar’s exit need not spell the end for the idea in Britain.

The Promise of Car Sharing

Car sharing is valued by many urbanists and green advocates as a way of reducing the ills associated with vehicle ownership. Typically, vehicles sit as two-tonne dead weights on the side of the road for 95% of the time, using up space. They also require large CO2 output to produce, and people without a vehicle tend to use active travel and take transit more. That helps urban areas – reducing congestion and pollution – and improves people’s health through increased activity.

Understanding the Decline

Zipcar was founded in 2000 before its acquisition by the US car rental group Avis Budget in 2013. Zipcar’s UK revenues were minimal compared with its parent company's total earnings, 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 “wider restructuring across our global operations, where we are taking targeted actions to streamline operations, enhance profitability”.

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

The Capital's Specific Challenges

Yet, industry observers noted that London has specific problems that made it difficult for the sector to succeed.

• Patchwork Policies: Across 33 boroughs, car-club operators face a mosaic of varying processes and costs that complicate operations.
• New Costs: The closure comes as electric cars becoming liable for 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 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,” argued Robert Schopen of Co Wheels. “We remove vehicles. We’re putting less polluting cars in their place.”

Lessons from Abroad

Nations in Europe offer models for London to follow. Germany enacted national shared mobility laws in 2017, providing a unified system 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.

“The evidence shows is that shared mobility around the world, especially in Europe, is expanding,” 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 be split into two models:

1. Fleet Operators: Which own or lease 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 rent 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 peer-to-peer platform, is assessing the UK gap. Rory Brimmer, its UK head, said there was a “significant chance” 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 build momentum. For now, more people may feel forced to buy cars, and others across London will be left without access.

For Rotherhithe community kitchen, the next month will be a scramble to find a way. 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.