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The community kitchen in Rotherhithe has been delivering hundreds of cooked meals each week for two years to pensioners and vulnerable locals in southeast London. Yet, their operations have been thrown into disarray 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 customers to access its cars from the street. The company sent shockwaves through the capital when it said it would cease its UK operations from 1 January.

It will mean many helpers cannot pick up supplies from the Felix Project, that collects surplus food from supermarkets, cafes and restaurants. Obvious alternatives are less convenient, costlier, or lack the same flexible hours.

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

“Knowing the 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 among more than half a million people in London registered as car club members, now potentially left without easy use to vehicles, without the hassle and cost of ownership. The vast majority of those members were likely with Zipcar, which had a near-monopoly position in the city.

The planned closure, pending consultation with employees, is a big blow to hopes that vehicle clubs in cities could cut the need for private vehicle ownership. Yet, some experts also suggested that Zipcar’s exit need not spell the end for the idea in Britain.

The Potential of Shared Mobility

Shared vehicle use is prized by city planners and green advocates as a way of reducing the problems associated with vehicle ownership. Most cars sit as two-tonne dead weights on the side of the road for 95% of the time, occupying parking. They also require large CO2 output to produce, and people without a vehicle tend to walk, cycle and take transit more. That helps urban areas – easing congestion and pollution – and boosts people’s health through increased activity.

Understanding the Decline

Zipcar was founded in 2000 before its acquisition by the American rental giant Avis Budget in 2013. Zipcar’s UK income were minimal compared with its owner'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 “wider restructuring across our international business, where we are taking deliberate steps to simplify processes, improve returns”.

Zipcar’s most recent accounts noted revenues had declined as drivers took less frequent, 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 Hurdles

However, industry observers noted that London has particular issues that made it much harder for the company and its rivals to succeed.

• Inconsistent Rules: With numerous local councils, car-club operators face a patchwork of varying processes and prices that complicate operations.
• New Costs: The closure coincides with electric cars becoming liable for London’s congestion charge, adding unavoidable costs.
• Unequal Parking Fees: Residents in some boroughs pay as little as £63 for a year’s electric car parking permit. A floating car club would pay over £1,100 annually, creating a major disincentive.

“We should literally be charged one-twentieth of a resident’s permit,” said Robert Schopen of Co Wheels. “We’re taking cars off the street. We’re putting less polluting cars in their place.”

Lessons from Abroad

Other European countries offer examples for London to follow. Germany enacted national shared mobility laws in 2017, providing a nationwide framework for parking, subsidies and waivers. Now, the country has several 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 shared mobility around the world, particularly on the continent, is growing,” said Bharath Devanathan of Invers.

He suggested authorities should start to view vehicle clubs 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: “There will be fill this gap.”

What Comes Next?

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

1. Company-Owned Fleets: Which own or lease their own cars. This includes 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. Players include Britain’s Hiyacar and the US’s Getaround and Turo.

One company, a US-headquartered P2P service, is assessing the UK gap. Rory Brimmer, its UK head, said there was a “significant chance” to win more users. “There is a void that is going to need to be filled, because London still needs to move,” Brimmer said.

Yet, it could take some time for other players to build momentum. In the meantime, more people may choose to buy cars, and others across London will be without a convenient option.

For the volunteers in Rotherhithe, the next month will be a scramble to find a solution. The delivery problem caused by Zipcar’s exit highlights the broader impact of its departure on vital services and the future of shared mobility in the UK.