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The volunteer food project in Rotherhithe has distributed a large number of cooked meals weekly for the past two years to pensioners and vulnerable locals in south London. Yet, the group's plans face major disruption by the announcement that they will lose access to 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 caused shock through the capital when it said it would cease its UK business from 1 January.

This means many helpers will be unable to collect food from the Felix Project, which gathers surplus food from grocery stores, cafes and restaurants. Obvious alternatives are less convenient, more expensive, or lack the same flexible hours.

“The impact will be massively,” stated 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 City Vehicle Clubs

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 convenient access to vehicles, avoiding the burden and cost of ownership. Most of those people were probably with Zipcar, which had a near-monopoly position in the city.

This shutdown, subject to consultation with staff, is a serious setback to hopes that vehicle clubs in urban areas could reduce the need for private vehicle ownership. However, some experts also suggested that Zipcar’s exit need not spell the end for the idea in Britain.

The Potential of Shared Mobility

Shared vehicle use is valued by city planners and environmentalists as a way of reducing the ills linked to 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 involve large CO2 output to produce, and people without a vehicle tend to walk, cycle and take transit more. That helps urban areas – easing congestion and pollution – and boosts people’s health through increased activity.

Understanding the Decline

The company started in 2000 before its acquisition by the US car rental group Avis Budget in 2013. Zipcar’s UK revenues barely registered compared with its parent company's total earnings, and a loss that reached £11.7m in 2024 gave no reason to continue.

The parent company stated the closure is part of a “wider restructuring across our global operations, where we are taking targeted actions to simplify processes, improve returns”.

Zipcar’s most recent accounts noted revenues had declined as drivers took fewer and shorter trips. “This trend reflect the continuing effect of the economic squeeze, which continues to suppress demand for discretionary spending,” it said.

The Capital's Specific Hurdles

However, industry observers noted that London has specific problems that made it much harder 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 made it harder.
• Congestion Charge: The closure comes as electric cars becoming liable for London’s congestion charge, adding unavoidable costs.
• Unequal Parking Fees: Residents 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.

“Our fees should be one-twentieth of a private parking cost,” 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 introduced national car-sharing legislation 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 lags behind at 0.7.

“The evidence shows is that shared mobility around the world, particularly on the continent, is growing,” commented Bharath Devanathan of Invers.

Devanathan said authorities should start to view vehicle clubs as a form of mass transit, 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.”

What Comes Next?

The company’s competitors can roughly be divided into two models:

1. Fleet Operators: Which maintain their own cars. Examples Denmark’s GreenMobility, France’s Free2Move, and Germany’s Miles Mobility.
2. Peer-to-Peer Services: Which allow users to hire out their own vehicles via an app – similar to Airbnb for cars. Players include Britain’s Hiyacar and the US’s Getaround and Turo.

One company, a US-headquartered P2P service, is assessing the UK gap. Rory Brimmer, its UK managing director, said there was a “big opportunity” 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 a while for other players to establish themselves. For now, more people may choose to buy cars, and many across London will be left without access.

For the volunteers in Rotherhithe, the next month will be a rush to find a way. The logistical challenge caused by Zipcar’s exit underscores the broader impact of its departure on community groups and the prospects of car-sharing in the UK.