{"id":672049,"date":"2026-07-03T17:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T17:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/672049\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T17:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T17:51:10","slug":"london-has-lost-catastrophic-89-of-car-club-vehicles-since-zipcar-exit-motoring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/672049\/","title":{"rendered":"London has lost \u2018catastrophic\u2019 89% of car club vehicles since Zipcar exit | Motoring"},"content":{"rendered":"

The number of car club vehicles in London<\/a> has fallen by a \u201ccatastrophic\u201d 89% since Zipcar ended its service in late 2025, with former users being pushed to consider buying or leasing.<\/p>\n

Car clubs allow drivers to use vehicles parked around a city, using apps to book and unlock them. Zipcar dominated London\u2019s car club market before the US company\u2019s shock decision to pull out<\/a> in December 2025. That left a gap that has yet to be filled for Londoners without a car.<\/p>\n

There were only 330 car club vehicles available for rent in London six months after Zipcar\u2019s withdrawal, down from 2,800 before, according to data from Collaborative Mobility (CoMoUK), a charity. Only about 100 of those 330 cars have been added since the end of the year.<\/p>\n

Former Zipcar users in the capital are considering turning to private car ownership<\/a> in order to fill the gap. A survey by CoMoUK found 9% of 216 former users said they had already bought or leased a vehicle to replace the car club, while 55% said they were considering it.<\/p>\n

The numbers highlight the gap left in London\u2019s car-sharing market. Free2move, owned by the carmaker Stellantis, Enterprise Car Club and the British company Co Wheels have said they are considering expansion in London<\/a>, but none have yet announced a decision to meaningfully increase numbers. The peer-to-peer car-sharing companies Hiyacar and Turo have also experienced increased interest but are reliant on private owners listing their cars.<\/p>\n

Car clubs reduce the overall need for vehicles<\/a>, cutting carbon emissions and saving the costs of ownership for users. However, clubs in some places have struggled to make money.<\/p>\n

London should be one of Europe\u2019s most attractive markets for car-sharing, with extensive public transport and 42% of the population going without a car. However, it has been held back by the lack of centralised rules and processes<\/a>, according to Richard Dilks, the CoMoUK chief executive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re massively down overall,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s a catastrophic result for a sector that is doing well across Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dilks said some London boroughs had cut fees and made licensing easier for car clubs but added that the situation was still very inconsistent across London\u2019s 32 boroughs, making it onerous to set up across the capital. Other forms of shared transport, now including dockless electric bicycles from Lime and Forest, are managed centrally by Transport for London.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s viability, then there should be a queue of people knocking on the door,\u201d Dilks said. \u201cBut there\u2019s not, and there\u2019s not one door.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A decade ago, TfL said<\/a> it wanted a million car club users by 2025, but the number of vehicles is now less than a fifth of what it was then.<\/p>\n

Zipcar was founded in 2000 in the US before it merged with the UK equivalent Streetcar in 2010. However, its current owner, the US car rental company Avis Budget, decided to pull the plug on the loss-making operation in London, leaving only its American operations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The number of car club vehicles in London has fallen by a \u201ccatastrophic\u201d 89% since Zipcar ended its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-672049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}