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The volunteer food project in Rotherhithe has distributed a large number of cooked meals each week for the past two years to pensioners and vulnerable locals in southeast London. However, the group's plans have been thrown into disarray by the announcement that they will not have 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. It sent shockwaves through the capital when it said it would cease its UK business from 1 January.

It will mean many helpers will be unable to collect food from the Felix Project, which gathers excess produce from grocery stores, cafes and restaurants. Obvious alternatives are less convenient, more expensive, or do not offer the same convenient access.

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

“Knowing the reality, everyone is concerned and thinking: ‘How are we going to carry on?”

A Significant Setback for Urban Car-Sharing

The community kitchen’s drivers are part of more than half a million people in London registered as car club members, now potentially left without convenient access to vehicles, avoiding the burden and cost of ownership. The vast majority of those members were probably with Zipcar, which had a near-monopoly position in the city.

This shutdown, pending consultation with employees, is a big blow to the vision that car sharing in cities could cut the need for private vehicle ownership. Yet, some analysts also suggested that Zipcar’s departure need not spell the end for the idea in Britain.

The Promise of Shared Mobility

Car sharing is prized by city planners and environmentalists as a way of reducing the problems associated with vehicle ownership. Most cars sit idle on the street for the vast majority of the time, occupying parking. They also involve large carbon emissions to produce, and people who do not own cars tend to walk, cycle and take public transport more. That helps urban areas – reducing congestion and pollution – and improves 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 income barely registered compared with its parent company's overall annual revenue, 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 global operations, where we are taking targeted actions to streamline operations, enhance profitability”.

Its latest financial reports 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 discretionary spending,” it said.

The Capital's Specific Hurdles

Yet, several experts 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 mosaic 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: 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 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 models for London to follow. Germany introduced national car-sharing legislation in 2017, providing a unified system for parking, support 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 lags behind at 0.7.

“What we see is that shared mobility around the world, especially in Europe, is expanding,” said Bharath Devanathan of Invers.

He suggested authorities should start to view vehicle clubs as a form of public transport, and integrate 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 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. 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 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.

However, it could take some time 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 the volunteers in Rotherhithe, the next month will be a rush to find a way. The delivery problem caused by Zipcar’s exit underscores the wider implications of its departure on vital services and the prospects of shared mobility in the UK.