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The volunteer food project in Rotherhithe has distributed a large number of cooked meals weekly for the past two years to elderly residents and vulnerable locals in southeast London. However, their operations face major disruption by the announcement that they will lose use of New Year’s Day.

The group had relied on Zipcar, the app-based vehicle rental service that customers to access its cars via smartphone. It sent shockwaves through the capital when it declared it would shut down its UK operations from 1 January.

This means many volunteers cannot collect food from the Felix Project, that collects excess produce from grocery stores, cafes and restaurants. Other options are further away, more expensive, or do not offer the same convenient access.

“The impact will be massively,” said Vimal Pandya, the project's founder. “My team and I are concerned by the operational hurdle we will face. Many groups like ours are going to struggle.”

“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 among more than half a million people in London registered as car club members, who could be left without easy use to vehicles, avoiding the burden and cost of ownership. The vast majority of those people were probably 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 private vehicle ownership. Yet, some analysts have noted that Zipcar’s departure need not spell the end for the idea in Britain.

The Potential of Car Sharing

Car sharing is prized by city planners and green advocates as a way of reducing the ills associated with vehicle ownership. Most cars sit as two-tonne dead weights on the street for the vast majority of the time, occupying parking. They also involve large CO2 output to produce, and people without a vehicle tend to use active travel and take transit more. That benefits cities – reducing congestion and pollution – and improves people’s health through more exercise.

Understanding the Decline

The company started in 2000 before being bought by the US car rental group Avis Budget in 2013. Zipcar’s UK income barely registered compared with its parent company's overall annual revenue, and a loss that reached £11.7m in 2024 gave no reason to continue.

The parent company stated the closure is part of a “wider restructuring across our global operations, where we are taking targeted actions to simplify processes, improve returns”.

Its latest financial reports noted revenues had declined as drivers took fewer and shorter trips. “These changes reflect the ongoing impact of the cost-of-living crisis, which continues to suppress demand for non-essential services,” it said.

The Capital's Specific Hurdles

Yet, industry observers noted that London has specific problems that made it much harder for the sector to succeed.

• Inconsistent Rules: With numerous local councils, car-club operators face a patchwork of varying processes and prices that made it harder.
• Congestion Charge: The closure coincides with electric cars start paying London’s congestion charge, adding unavoidable costs.
• Parking Permit Disparity: Locals in some boroughs pay just £63 for a annual electric car parking permit. A floating car club would pay over £1,100 annually, creating a major disincentive.

“Our fees should be one-twentieth of a private parking cost,” said Robert Schopen of Co Wheels. “We remove vehicles. We introduce cleaner models in their place.”

Lessons from Abroad

Nations in Europe offer models for London to follow. Germany enacted national shared mobility laws in 2017, providing a unified system 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, especially in Europe, is growing,” said Bharath Devanathan of Invers.

He suggested authorities should start to treat car sharing as a form of mass transit, and integrate it with train and bus stations. He added that one unnamed client 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 – a kind of Airbnb for cars. Examples Britain’s Hiyacar and the US’s Getaround and Turo.

One company, 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 some time for other players to build momentum. In the meantime, more people may feel forced to buy cars, and many across London will be without a convenient option.

For Rotherhithe community kitchen, the coming weeks will be a rush to find a solution. The logistical challenge caused by Zipcar’s exit highlights the wider implications of its departure on vital services and the future of car-sharing in the UK.