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The community kitchen in Rotherhithe has been delivering a large number of cooked meals each week for the past two years to elderly residents and needy locals in south London. However, their operations have been thrown into disarray by the announcement that they will not have cars and vans on New Year’s Day.

This organization depended on Zipcar, the car-sharing company that customers to access its cars from the street. It caused shock through the capital when it declared it would shut down its UK operations from 1 January.

This means many helpers will be unable to collect food from a major food charity, which gathers excess produce from grocery stores, cafes and restaurants. Other options are further away, costlier, or do not offer the same flexible hours.

“The impact will be massively,” stated Vimal Pandya, the community kitchen’s founder. “My team and I are concerned by the logistical challenge we will face. A lot of people like ours will face difficulties.”

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

A Major Blow for Urban Car-Sharing

These volunteers are among more than half a million people in London registered as car club members, who could be left without convenient access to vehicles, without the hassle and cost of ownership. Most of those people were likely with Zipcar, which held a dominant position in the city.

This shutdown, pending consultation with employees, is a big blow to the vision that vehicle clubs in urban areas could cut the need for owning a car. However, some experts have noted that Zipcar’s departure need not spell the end for the concept in Britain.

The Potential of Car Sharing

Car sharing is valued by many urbanists and environmentalists as a way of reducing the ills linked to vehicle ownership. Typically, vehicles sit as two-tonne dead weights on the street for 95% of the time, using up space. They also require large carbon emissions to produce, and people who do not own cars tend to use active travel and take public transport more. That helps urban areas – easing congestion and pollution – and improves people’s health through increased activity.

Understanding the Decline

The company started in 2000 before being bought by the US car rental group Avis Budget in 2013. Zipcar’s UK revenues were minimal compared with its owner's overall annual revenue, and a deficit 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 global operations, where we are taking targeted actions to streamline operations, enhance profitability”.

Its latest financial reports noted revenues had fallen as drivers took less frequent, shorter trips. “These changes reflect the ongoing impact of the cost-of-living crisis, which is dampening demand for discretionary spending,” it said.

The Capital's Specific Hurdles

However, 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 made it harder.
• New Costs: The closure coincides with electric cars start paying London’s congestion charge, adding extra expenses.
• Unequal Parking Fees: Residents 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’re taking cars off the street. We introduce cleaner models in their place.”

Lessons from Abroad

Other European countries offer examples for London to follow. Germany enacted national shared mobility laws in 2017, providing a nationwide framework for parking, support and exemptions. 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 car sharing around the world, especially in Europe, is expanding,” said Bharath Devanathan of Invers.

Devanathan said authorities should start to view vehicle clubs as a form of public transport, and link it with train and bus stations. He added that one unnamed client was looking at entering the London market: “Operators will fill this gap.”

What Comes Next?

Other players can be split into two models:

1. Fleet Operators: 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 P2P service, is already weighing up the UK gap. Rory Brimmer, its UK managing director, 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 some time for other players to build momentum. For now, more people may choose to buy cars, and others across London will be left without access.

For the volunteers in Rotherhithe, the next month will be a rush to find a way. The delivery problem caused by Zipcar’s exit underscores the broader impact of its departure on vital services and the prospects of shared mobility in the UK.