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The community kitchen in Rotherhithe has provided hundreds of cooked meals each week for two years to elderly residents and vulnerable locals in south London. Yet, the group's plans have been thrown into disarray by the news that they will not have access to 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. It sent shockwaves through the capital when it said it would shut down its UK business from 1 January.

This means many helpers cannot pick up supplies from a major food charity, which gathers excess produce from grocery stores, cafes and restaurants. Obvious alternatives are further away, costlier, or do not offer the same convenient access.

“It’s going to be affected massively,” stated Vimal Pandya, the community kitchen’s founder. “Personally me and my team are worried about the operational hurdle we will face. Many groups like ours are going to struggle.”

“Faced with this reality, they are all worried and thinking: ‘How are we going to carry on?”

A Significant Setback for Urban Car-Sharing

The community kitchen’s drivers are part of more than half a million people in London registered as car club members, now potentially left without convenient access to vehicles, avoiding the burden and cost of ownership. Most of those members were likely with Zipcar, which had a near-monopoly position in the city.

The planned closure, pending consultation with staff, is a serious setback to hopes that vehicle clubs in cities could cut the need for private vehicle ownership. However, some analysts have noted that Zipcar’s departure need not mean the demise for the concept in Britain.

The Potential of Car Sharing

Shared vehicle use is valued by many urbanists and environmentalists as a way of reducing the ills linked to vehicle ownership. Most cars sit idle on the street for 95% of the time, occupying parking. They also involve large carbon emissions to produce, and people who do not own cars tend to walk, cycle and take transit more. That helps urban areas – reducing congestion and pollution – and boosts public health through more exercise.

What Went Wrong?

The company started in 2000 before being bought 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 loss that grew to £11.7m in 2024 gave no reason to continue.

Avis Budget has said the closure is part of a “wider restructuring across our global operations, where we are taking targeted actions to simplify processes, improve returns”.

Its latest financial reports said 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.

London's Unique 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 mosaic of varying processes and costs that made it harder.
• New Costs: The closure comes as electric cars start paying London’s congestion charge, adding unavoidable costs.
• Parking Permit Disparity: Residents in some boroughs pay just £63 for a annual electric car parking permit. A floating car club would pay over £1,100 annually, creating a significant barrier.

“We should literally be charged 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

Other European countries offer models for London to follow. Germany enacted national shared mobility laws 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.

“The evidence shows is that shared mobility around the world, especially in Europe, is growing,” commented Bharath Devanathan of Invers.

Devanathan said authorities should start to treat car sharing as a form of public transport, and link it with train and bus stations. He added that a potential operator was looking at entering the London market: “Operators will fill this gap.”

What Comes Next?

Other players can roughly be divided into two camps:

1. Fleet Operators: Which own or lease 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 – similar to Airbnb for cars. Players include Britain’s Hiyacar and the US’s Getaround and Turo.

Turo, a US-headquartered peer-to-peer platform, is assessing the UK gap. Rory Brimmer, its UK head, said there was a “significant chance” 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 a while for other players to establish themselves. For now, more people may feel forced to buy cars, and many across London will be without a convenient option.

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