A community kitchen in Rotherhithe has provided a large number of prepared dishes weekly for the past two years to elderly residents and vulnerable locals in southeast London. Yet, the group's plans face major disruption by the announcement that they will lose cars and vans on New Year’s Day.
The group had relied on Zipcar, the app-based vehicle rental service that allowed its fleet of vehicles via smartphone. The company sent shockwaves across London when it declared it would cease its UK operations from 1 January.
This means many volunteers will be unable to collect food from the Felix Project, which gathers excess produce from supermarkets, cafes and restaurants. Obvious alternatives are less convenient, more expensive, or do not offer the same convenient access.
“The impact will be massively,” stated Vimal Pandya, the project's founder. “My team and I are concerned by 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 are we going to carry on?”
A Major Blow for Urban Car-Sharing
The community kitchen’s drivers are part of over 500,000 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.
This shutdown, pending consultation with employees, is a serious setback to the vision that vehicle clubs in cities could cut the need for private vehicle ownership. However, some experts have noted that Zipcar’s exit need not spell the end for the concept in Britain.
The Potential of Car Sharing
Shared vehicle use is valued by many urbanists and green advocates as a way of mitigating the ills linked to vehicle ownership. Typically, vehicles sit as two-tonne dead weights on the street for 95% of the time, using up space. They also involve large CO2 output to produce, and people without a vehicle tend to use active travel and take transit more. That helps urban areas – reducing congestion and pollution – and boosts people’s health through more exercise.
What Went Wrong?
Zipcar was founded in 2000 before being bought by the American rental giant Avis Budget in 2013. Zipcar’s UK revenues barely registered compared with its owner's overall annual revenue, and a deficit that grew to £11.7m in 2024 gave little incentive to continue.
The parent company stated the closure is part of a “broader transformation across our global operations, where we are taking deliberate steps to streamline operations, improve returns”.
Zipcar’s most recent accounts noted revenues had declined as drivers took less frequent, shorter trips. “This trend reflect the ongoing impact of the economic squeeze, which is dampening demand for discretionary spending,” it said.
The Capital's Specific Challenges
Yet, industry observers noted that London has specific problems that made it much harder for the sector to succeed.
- Patchwork Policies: With numerous local councils, car-club operators face a mosaic of different procedures and costs that made it harder.
- New Costs: The closure coincides with electric cars becoming liable for London’s congestion charge, adding unavoidable costs.
- Parking Permit Disparity: Residents in some boroughs pay just £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’re putting less polluting cars in their place.”
Lessons from Abroad
Other European countries offer models for London to follow. Germany introduced national shared mobility laws in 2017, providing a nationwide framework for parking, support 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.
“What we see is that car sharing around the world, particularly on the continent, is growing,” commented Bharath Devanathan of Invers.
He suggested 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 already seriously considering entering the London market: “Operators will fill this gap.”
What Comes Next?
The company’s competitors can roughly be divided into two models:
- Fleet Operators: Which maintain their own cars. Examples Denmark’s GreenMobility, France’s Free2Move, and Germany’s Miles Mobility.
- 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 peer-to-peer platform, is assessing the UK gap. Rory Brimmer, its UK managing director, 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 build momentum. In the meantime, more people may choose to buy cars, and many across London will be left without access.
For the volunteers in Rotherhithe, the next month will be a scramble to find a way. The logistical challenge caused by Zipcar’s exit highlights the wider implications of its departure on community groups and the prospects of shared mobility in the UK.
