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A volunteer food project in Rotherhithe has distributed a large number of cooked meals weekly for two years to elderly residents and needy locals in southeast London. Yet, 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 customers to access its fleet of vehicles via smartphone. The company sent shockwaves through the capital when it said it would shut down its UK business from 1 January.

This means many volunteers cannot collect food 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.

“The impact will be 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 will face difficulties.”

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

A Significant Setback for Urban Car-Sharing

These volunteers are part of 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.

This shutdown, subject to consultation with employees, is a serious setback to the vision that car sharing in urban areas could cut the need for owning a car. However, some experts have noted that Zipcar’s exit need not spell the end for the concept in Britain.

The Potential of Shared Mobility

Shared vehicle use is prized by many urbanists and environmentalists as a way of reducing the ills linked to vehicle ownership. Typically, vehicles sit idle on the side of the road for 95% of the time, occupying parking. They also involve large CO2 output to produce, and people who do not own cars tend to use active travel and take public transport more. That helps urban areas – reducing congestion and pollution – and boosts public health through increased activity.

What Went Wrong?

Zipcar was founded in 2000 before being bought by the American rental giant Avis Budget in 2013. Zipcar’s UK income barely registered compared with its owner's total earnings, and a loss 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”.

Its latest financial reports said revenues had fallen as drivers took fewer and shorter trips. “This trend reflect the ongoing impact of the cost-of-living crisis, which is dampening demand for discretionary spending,” it said.

The Capital's Specific Hurdles

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

• Patchwork Policies: With numerous local councils, car-club operators face a patchwork of different procedures and prices that made it harder.
• New Costs: The closure comes as electric cars start paying London’s congestion charge, adding extra expenses.
• Parking Permit Disparity: Residents in some boroughs pay as little as £63 for a annual electric car parking permit. A floating car club would pay over £1,100 annually, creating a major disincentive.

“Our fees should be one-twentieth of a resident’s permit,” argued Robert Schopen of Co Wheels. “We’re taking cars off the street. We’re putting less polluting cars in their place.”

Lessons from Abroad

Nations in Europe offer examples for London to follow. Germany introduced national shared mobility laws in 2017, providing a unified system for parking, subsidies 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.

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

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

The Future Landscape

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

1. Company-Owned Fleets: 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 – a kind of Airbnb for cars. Examples Britain’s Hiyacar and the US’s Getaround and Turo.

One company, a US-headquartered peer-to-peer platform, is already weighing up the UK gap. Rory Brimmer, its UK head, 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.

Yet, it could take some time for other players to build momentum. For now, more people may feel forced to buy cars, and many across London will be left without access.

For the volunteers in Rotherhithe, the coming weeks will be a scramble to find a solution. The logistical challenge caused by Zipcar’s exit underscores the broader impact of its departure on community groups and the future of shared mobility in the UK.