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A 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 face major disruption by the news that they will lose access to New Year’s Day.

This organization depended on Zipcar, the app-based vehicle rental service that customers to access its fleet of vehicles via smartphone. It sent shockwaves across London when it declared it would shut down its UK business from 1 January.

It will mean many helpers will be unable to collect food from a major food charity, which gathers surplus food from grocery stores, cafes and restaurants. Other options are further away, more expensive, or lack the same convenient access.

“It’s going to be affected massively,” said Vimal Pandya, the community kitchen’s founder. “My team and I are concerned by the logistical challenge we will face. Many groups like ours are going to struggle.”

“Knowing the reality, they are all worried and thinking: ‘How will we continue?’”

A Major Blow for Urban Car-Sharing

The community kitchen’s drivers are among more than half a million people in London registered as car club members, now potentially left without easy use to vehicles, avoiding the burden and cost of ownership. Most of those people were likely with Zipcar, which held a dominant position in the city.

The planned closure, subject to consultation with staff, is a serious setback to the vision that vehicle clubs in urban areas could cut the need for owning a car. Yet, some analysts have noted that Zipcar’s exit need not mean the demise for the idea in Britain.

The Promise of Car Sharing

Car sharing is valued by city planners and environmentalists as a way of reducing the ills linked to 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 carbon emissions to produce, and people who do not own cars tend to walk, cycle and take transit more. That benefits cities – reducing congestion and pollution – and improves public health through increased activity.

Understanding the Decline

Zipcar was founded in 2000 before being bought by the American rental giant Avis Budget in 2013. Zipcar’s UK income were minimal compared with its parent company's total earnings, and a loss that reached £11.7m in 2024 gave little incentive 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 simplify processes, improve returns”.

Its latest financial reports noted revenues had fallen as drivers took fewer and shorter trips. “This trend 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 much harder for the company and its rivals to succeed.

• Patchwork Policies: Across 33 boroughs, car-club operators face a mosaic of different procedures and prices that made it harder.
• New Costs: The closure comes as electric cars becoming liable for London’s congestion charge, adding unavoidable costs.
• Unequal Parking Fees: Locals in some boroughs pay just £63 for a annual electric car parking permit. A similar shared vehicle would pay over £1,100 annually, creating a significant barrier.

“We should literally be charged one-twentieth of a resident’s permit,” argued Robert Schopen of Co Wheels. “We remove vehicles. We’re putting less polluting cars in their place.”

A European Example

Other European countries offer examples 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.

“What we see is that shared mobility around the world, particularly on the continent, is growing,” commented Bharath Devanathan of Invers.

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

The Future Landscape

Other players can be split into two camps:

1. Company-Owned Fleets: 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. Examples 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. “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 build momentum. For now, more people may choose to buy cars, and many across London will be without a convenient option.

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 vital services and the future of car-sharing in the UK.