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The volunteer food project in Rotherhithe has distributed hundreds of cooked meals weekly for the past two years to elderly residents and vulnerable locals in south London. Yet, their operations have been thrown into disarray by the news that they will lose cars and vans on New Year’s Day.

This organization had relied on Zipcar, the car-sharing company that customers to access its cars from the street. It caused shock through the capital when it declared it would cease its UK business from 1 January.

It will mean many helpers cannot collect food from the Felix Project, which gathers surplus food 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. “Personally me and my team are worried about 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 will we continue?’”

A Significant Setback for City Vehicle Clubs

The community kitchen’s drivers are among 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. The vast majority of those members were likely with Zipcar, which held a dominant position in the city.

This shutdown, pending consultation with employees, is a serious setback to hopes that car sharing in urban areas could cut the need for owning a car. Yet, some analysts have noted that Zipcar’s exit need not spell the end for the idea in Britain.

The Promise of Shared Mobility

Car sharing is prized by city planners and green advocates as a way of reducing the problems linked to vehicle ownership. Most cars sit as two-tonne dead weights on the street for the vast majority of the time, using up space. They also involve large CO2 output to produce, and people without a vehicle tend to walk, cycle and take public transport more. That benefits cities – reducing congestion and pollution – and improves public health through more exercise.

What Went Wrong?

The company started in 2000 before being bought by the American rental giant Avis Budget in 2013. Zipcar’s UK income barely registered compared with its owner's total earnings, and a deficit 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 targeted actions to simplify processes, improve returns”.

Zipcar’s most recent accounts said revenues had declined as drivers took fewer and shorter trips. “This trend reflect the continuing effect of the cost-of-living crisis, which continues to suppress demand for non-essential services,” it said.

London's Unique Hurdles

However, several experts noted that London has specific problems that made it much harder for the company and its rivals to succeed.

• Patchwork Policies: 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 extra expenses.
• Parking Permit Disparity: Residents in some boroughs pay as little as £63 for a annual electric car parking permit. A floating car club would pay over £1,100 per year, creating a major disincentive.

“We should literally be charged one-twentieth of a private parking cost,” 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

Nations in Europe offer models for London to follow. Germany introduced national shared mobility laws in 2017, providing a nationwide framework for parking, subsidies 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 trails at 0.7.

“What we see is that car sharing around the world, particularly on the continent, is expanding,” said Bharath Devanathan of Invers.

Devanathan said authorities should start to view vehicle clubs as a form of mass transit, and integrate it with train and bus stations. He added that a potential operator was looking at entering the London market: “There will be fill this gap.”

The Future Landscape

Other players can be split into two camps:

1. Fleet Operators: Which own or lease their own cars. Examples 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 P2P service, is already weighing up the UK gap. Rory Brimmer, its UK head, 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. For now, more people may feel forced to buy cars, and many across London will be without a convenient option.

For the volunteers in Rotherhithe, the coming weeks will be a scramble to find a solution. 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.