A community kitchen in Rotherhithe has provided a large number of cooked meals each week for two years to pensioners 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 depended on Zipcar, the car-sharing company that customers to access its fleet of vehicles from the street. The company caused shock across London when it said it would shut down its UK operations from 1 January.
It will mean many helpers cannot pick up supplies from a major food charity, that collects excess produce from grocery stores, cafes and restaurants. Other options are less convenient, more expensive, or do not offer the same convenient access.
“It’s going to be affected massively,” stated Vimal Pandya, the community kitchen’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.”
“Knowing the reality, everyone is concerned and thinking: ‘How will we continue?’”
These volunteers are part of more than half a million people in London who were car club members, who could be left without easy use to vehicles, without the hassle and cost of ownership. Most of those people were likely with Zipcar, which held a dominant position in the city.
The planned closure, subject to consultation with employees, is a serious setback to the vision that vehicle clubs in urban areas could reduce the need for private vehicle ownership. However, some analysts also suggested that Zipcar’s departure need not mean the demise for the concept in Britain.
Shared vehicle use is prized by many urbanists and green advocates as a way of mitigating the problems linked to vehicle ownership. Typically, vehicles sit idle on the street for 95% of the time, using up space. They also involve large CO2 output to produce, and people who do not own cars tend to walk, cycle and take transit more. That helps urban areas – reducing congestion and pollution – and improves people’s health through increased activity.
The company started in 2000 before being bought by the American rental giant Avis Budget in 2013. Zipcar’s UK revenues barely registered 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 “broader transformation across our global operations, where we are taking deliberate steps to streamline operations, enhance profitability”.
Its latest financial reports noted revenues had fallen as drivers took less frequent, shorter trips. “This trend reflect the ongoing impact of the cost-of-living crisis, which is dampening demand for discretionary spending,” it said.
Yet, industry observers noted that London has specific problems that made it much harder for the company and its rivals to succeed.
“We should literally be charged one-twentieth of a resident’s permit,” argued Robert Schopen of Co Wheels. “We’re taking cars off the street. We’re putting less polluting cars in their place.”
Nations in Europe offer examples for London to follow. Germany enacted national shared mobility laws in 2017, providing a unified system 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, especially in Europe, is growing,” said Bharath Devanathan of Invers.
Devanathan said authorities should start to view vehicle clubs as a form of mass transit, and link 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 company’s competitors can be split into two models:
One company, 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 some time for other players to establish themselves. For now, more people may feel forced to buy cars, and others 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 underscores the broader impact of its departure on vital services and the future of shared mobility in the UK.
Elara is a seasoned gaming journalist with a passion for slot mechanics and player strategies.
