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A volunteer food project in Rotherhithe has been delivering hundreds of cooked meals each week for the past two years to pensioners and vulnerable locals in south London. However, their operations have been thrown into disarray by the announcement that they will not have use of New Year’s Day.

The group had relied on Zipcar, the app-based vehicle rental service that allowed 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.

It will mean many volunteers cannot pick up supplies from the Felix Project, that collects surplus food from supermarkets, cafes and restaurants. Other options are further away, more expensive, or lack the same flexible hours.

“The impact will be massively,” said Vimal Pandya, the community kitchen’s founder. “My team and I are concerned by the operational hurdle we will face. A lot of people like ours are going to struggle.”

“Faced with this reality, they are all worried and thinking: ‘How will we continue?’”

A Significant Setback for City Vehicle Clubs

These volunteers are among over 500,000 people in London registered as car club members, who could be left without easy use to vehicles, avoiding the burden 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 vehicle clubs in cities could reduce the need for owning a car. Yet, some experts also suggested that Zipcar’s departure need not spell the end for the idea in Britain.

The Promise of Car Sharing

Car sharing is prized by many urbanists and environmentalists as a way of mitigating the problems 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 walk, cycle and take transit more. That benefits cities – reducing congestion and pollution – and improves public health through more exercise.

What Went Wrong?

The company started in 2000 before its acquisition by the US car rental group Avis Budget in 2013. Zipcar’s UK income were minimal compared with its owner's overall annual revenue, and a deficit that grew to £11.7m in 2024 gave little incentive to continue.

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

Zipcar’s most recent accounts noted revenues had fallen as drivers took less frequent, 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

Yet, several experts noted that London has specific problems that made it much harder for the sector to succeed.

• Inconsistent Rules: Across 33 boroughs, car-club operators face a patchwork of varying processes and costs that made it harder.
• New Costs: The closure coincides with electric cars start paying London’s congestion charge, adding extra expenses.
• Parking Permit Disparity: Locals in some boroughs pay as little as £63 for a year’s electric car parking permit. A similar shared vehicle would pay over £1,100 annually, 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 examples for London to follow. Germany enacted national car-sharing legislation in 2017, providing a nationwide framework for parking, support 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 shared mobility around the world, especially in Europe, 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 one unnamed client was already seriously considering entering the London market: “Operators will fill this gap.”

What Comes Next?

Other players can be split 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 – a kind of Airbnb for cars. Examples 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 “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.

However, it could take some time for other players to build momentum. In the meantime, 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 rush to find a solution. The delivery problem caused by Zipcar’s exit underscores the broader impact of its departure on community groups and the prospects of car-sharing in the UK.