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A volunteer food project in Rotherhithe has been delivering hundreds of prepared dishes each week for two years to elderly residents and needy locals in southeast London. However, 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 from the street. It sent shockwaves through the capital when it declared it would cease its UK business from 1 January.

This means many helpers will be unable to pick up supplies from the Felix Project, that collects surplus food from grocery stores, cafes and restaurants. Other options are less convenient, costlier, or do not offer the same flexible hours.

“It’s going to be affected massively,” said Vimal Pandya, the project's founder. “Personally me and my team are concerned by the operational hurdle 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

These volunteers are among more than half a million people in London registered as car club members, who could be left without easy use to vehicles, without the hassle and cost of ownership. Most of those people were probably with Zipcar, which had a near-monopoly position in the city.

This shutdown, 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 analysts have noted that Zipcar’s exit need not spell the end for the concept in Britain.

The Promise of Car Sharing

Car sharing is valued by city planners and environmentalists as a way of reducing the problems associated with 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 walk, cycle and take transit more. That benefits cities – reducing congestion and pollution – and boosts public health through more exercise.

Understanding the Decline

Zipcar was founded in 2000 before being bought by the US car rental group 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 no reason to continue.

Avis Budget has said the closure is part of a “wider restructuring across our global operations, where we are taking deliberate steps to streamline operations, improve returns”.

Its latest financial reports noted revenues had declined as drivers took less frequent, shorter trips. “This trend reflect the continuing effect of the economic squeeze, which continues to suppress demand for discretionary spending,” it said.

London's Unique Hurdles

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

• Inconsistent Rules: With numerous local councils, car-club operators face a mosaic of varying processes and prices that complicate operations.
• Congestion Charge: The closure comes as electric cars start paying London’s congestion charge, adding extra expenses.
• Parking Permit Disparity: Locals 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 significant barrier.

“We should literally be charged one-twentieth of a resident’s permit,” said Robert Schopen of Co Wheels. “We remove vehicles. We introduce cleaner models in their place.”

Lessons from Abroad

Nations in Europe offer examples 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 5.4 shared cars per 10,000 people, while France has 2.1 and Belgium has 6.3. The UK trails at 0.7.

“The evidence shows is that shared mobility around the world, particularly on the continent, is expanding,” 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 looking at 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. Fleet Operators: 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 – 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 already weighing up 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.

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

For Rotherhithe community kitchen, the coming weeks will be a scramble 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.