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A community kitchen in Rotherhithe has provided a large number of cooked meals each week for the past two years to pensioners and vulnerable locals in southeast London. However, their operations face major disruption by the news that they will not have use of New Year’s Day.

This organization depended on Zipcar, the app-based vehicle rental service that customers to access its cars via smartphone. The company caused shock through the capital when it declared it would shut down its UK operations from 1 January.

It will mean many helpers will be unable to pick up supplies from the Felix Project, that collects surplus food from grocery stores, cafes and restaurants. Other options are less convenient, costlier, 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 operational hurdle we will face. Many groups like ours are going to struggle.”

“Faced with this reality, everyone is concerned and thinking: ‘How are we going to carry on?”

A Significant Setback for Urban Car-Sharing

The community kitchen’s drivers are among over 500,000 people in London who were car club members, now potentially left without easy use to vehicles, avoiding the burden and cost of ownership. The vast majority of those people were likely with Zipcar, which held a dominant position in the city.

The planned closure, subject to consultation with employees, is a serious setback to the vision that vehicle clubs in cities could cut the need for owning a car. Yet, some analysts have noted that Zipcar’s exit need not spell the end for the concept in Britain.

The Promise of Car Sharing

Car sharing is valued by many urbanists and green advocates as a way of reducing the problems associated with vehicle ownership. Typically, vehicles sit idle on the side of the road for the vast majority of the time, using up space. They also involve large CO2 output 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?

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 parent company's total earnings, and a deficit that grew to £11.7m in 2024 gave no reason 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 simplify processes, improve returns”.

Zipcar’s most recent accounts noted revenues had fallen as drivers took fewer and shorter trips. “This trend reflect the ongoing impact of the economic squeeze, which continues to suppress demand for non-essential services,” it said.

The Capital's Specific Challenges

However, several experts noted that London has particular issues that made it difficult for the company and its rivals to succeed.

• Patchwork Policies: Across 33 boroughs, car-club operators face a patchwork of different procedures 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 as little as £63 for a annual electric car parking permit. A floating car club would pay over £1,100 per year, 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 models for London to follow. Germany enacted national car-sharing legislation 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.

“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 view vehicle clubs as a form of mass transit, 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 roughly be divided into two models:

1. Company-Owned Fleets: Which maintain their own cars. This includes 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 – similar to 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 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 establish themselves. In the meantime, more people may feel forced to buy cars, and many across London will be left without access.

For Rotherhithe community kitchen, the coming weeks will be a rush to find a solution. The logistical challenge caused by Zipcar’s exit underscores the wider implications of its departure on vital services and the prospects of car-sharing in the UK.