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A community kitchen in Rotherhithe has been delivering hundreds of cooked meals weekly for two years to elderly residents and vulnerable locals in southeast London. However, their operations have been thrown into disarray by the announcement that they will not have 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. 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, that collects excess produce from grocery stores, cafes and restaurants. Other options are less convenient, costlier, or do not offer the same convenient access.

“The impact will be massively,” stated Vimal Pandya, the community kitchen’s founder. “My team and I are concerned by the operational hurdle we will face. A lot of people like ours will face difficulties.”

“Faced with this reality, everyone is concerned and thinking: ‘How will we continue?’”

A Major Blow for Urban Car-Sharing

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 easy use to vehicles, without the hassle 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 hopes that vehicle clubs in cities could reduce the need for owning a car. However, some experts also suggested that Zipcar’s departure need not spell the end for the concept in Britain.

The Promise of Car Sharing

Shared vehicle use is prized by many urbanists and environmentalists as a way of reducing the problems linked to vehicle ownership. Typically, vehicles sit as two-tonne dead weights on the street 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 use active travel and take public transport more. That benefits cities – easing 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 revenues barely registered compared with its owner's total earnings, and a deficit that grew to £11.7m in 2024 gave no reason 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 said revenues had declined as drivers took fewer and shorter trips. “These changes reflect the continuing effect of the cost-of-living crisis, which is dampening demand for non-essential services,” it said.

London's Unique Challenges

However, several experts noted that London has particular issues that made it difficult for the sector to succeed.

• Inconsistent Rules: Across 33 boroughs, car-club operators face a patchwork of varying processes and costs that made it harder.
• New Costs: The closure coincides with 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 year’s electric car parking permit. A similar shared vehicle would pay over £1,100 per year, creating a major disincentive.

“We should literally be charged one-twentieth of a private parking cost,” said Robert Schopen of Co Wheels. “We’re taking cars off the street. We introduce cleaner models in their place.”

A European Example

Other European countries offer examples for London to follow. Germany enacted national shared mobility laws 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 trails at 0.7.

“What we see is that car sharing around the world, especially in Europe, is growing,” said 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 looking at entering the London market: “Operators will fill this gap.”

The Future Landscape

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

1. Fleet Operators: Which maintain 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.

Turo, a US-headquartered P2P service, is assessing the UK gap. Rory Brimmer, its UK head, 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.

Yet, it could take a while for other players to build momentum. For now, more people may feel forced to buy cars, and many across London will be without a convenient option.

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