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The community kitchen in Rotherhithe has distributed a large number of prepared dishes weekly for two years to elderly residents and vulnerable locals in southeast London. However, the group's plans face major disruption by the announcement that they will lose use of New Year’s Day.

The group depended on Zipcar, the app-based vehicle rental service that allowed its cars from the street. It caused shock across London when it said it would shut down its UK operations from 1 January.

This means many helpers will be unable to pick up supplies from a major food charity, that collects excess produce from supermarkets, cafes and restaurants. Other options are further away, more expensive, or do not offer the same flexible hours.

“It’s going to be affected massively,” stated Vimal Pandya, the project's founder. “Personally me and my team are concerned by the logistical challenge we will face. A lot of people 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 registered as car club members, now potentially left without convenient access to vehicles, avoiding the burden and cost of ownership. The vast majority 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 big blow to the vision that car sharing in urban areas could cut the need for owning a car. However, some experts also suggested that Zipcar’s exit need not mean the demise for the concept in Britain.

The Promise of Shared Mobility

Car sharing is valued by city planners and environmentalists as a way of reducing the problems 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 require large carbon emissions to produce, and people without a vehicle tend to use active travel and take public transport more. That helps urban areas – easing congestion and pollution – and improves people’s health through more exercise.

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 owner's total earnings, and a loss that grew to £11.7m in 2024 gave little incentive to continue.

Avis Budget has said 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. “These changes reflect the continuing effect of the economic squeeze, which continues to suppress demand for non-essential services,” it said.

London's Unique Hurdles

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

• Patchwork Policies: With numerous local councils, car-club operators face a patchwork of different procedures and prices that complicate operations.
• New Costs: The closure comes as electric cars start paying London’s congestion charge, adding unavoidable costs.
• Unequal Parking Fees: Locals 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 major disincentive.

“Our fees should be one-twentieth of a resident’s permit,” argued 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 introduced national car-sharing legislation 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, 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 link it with train and bus stations. He added that one unnamed client was looking at entering the London market: “Operators will fill this gap.”

What Comes Next?

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

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 rent 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 peer-to-peer platform, is assessing the UK gap. Rory Brimmer, its UK managing director, said there was a “big opportunity” 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 some time for other players to build momentum. In the meantime, more people may choose to buy cars, and many across London will be left without access.

For Rotherhithe community kitchen, the coming weeks will be a scramble to find a way. The delivery problem caused by Zipcar’s exit underscores the wider implications of its departure on community groups and the prospects of shared mobility in the UK.