The news about Zipcar is very depressing. I can't help but think if the economics of a car-club monopoly (or close to it) do not work in a city of c.10m, then something has gone badly wrong in policy making at a borough, city or national level.
I've never owned a car as Zipcar and it's predecessor Streetcar met my needs - shopping, the odd day out, the journey to the tip. More recently, it's meant that I could take my blind and mobility restricted father in law whom we now live with to (endless) appointments, visit friends and, frankly, anywhere not within a 500m radius without taxis and stress. There must be tens of thousands of people who could tell similar stories.
The economics were on a bit of a knife edge, but Avis would be able to prop up Zipcar if Avis weren't in financial trouble of their own. It wouldn't be impossible for someone to come in and get Zipcar moving in the right direction. As others have said surely it should be profitable (or at least break even) given that it's such a useful and welcome service.
However, I think this is more about Zipcar being blindsided by TfL's recently announced changes to the Congestion Charge that are coming in and how that affects Zipcar's large fleet of Flex EVs.
The general exemption for all EVs was expiring at the end of the year as expected but Zipcar was probably expecting TfL to add an exemption for all EVs that are part of a car club. The results of the TfL consultation(s) strongly hinted at that.
But what TfL has done is to only introduce the Congestion Charge exemption for EVs only for Car Club vehicles "that are picked up and returned to the same bay within the CCZ."
So a normal Zipcar EV that has a designated bay is fine. But all of the hundreds (thousands?) of Zipcar Flex EVs suddenly attract the congestion charge (albeit with a 25% discount if registered with Auto Pay).
Zipcar can't afford to absorb those costs and the members/drivers won't like it if those costs are passed on to them.
So I suspect that Zipcar are calling TfL's bluff. Either grant an CCZ exemption for all Car Club EVs (even the ones that don't have a designated bay), or we pull the entire Zipcar UK/London operation, including all of the non-EV cars that live way outside the Congestion Charge Zone. 3,000 vehicles gone, 550,000 Zipcar members in London suddenly having to find alternatives. Good luck TfL sticking to your traffic/parking/congestion/carbon targets when a whole bunch of former Zipcar members buy petrol/diesel cars/vans to get by. Oh and 71 employees put at notice of redundancy just before Christmas. Your call TfL.
I'll be gutted if Zipcar disappears. Similar to person above I've been a Streetcar/Zipcar member since 2007 and it has kept me away from owning a car all this time. Zipcar neatly filled the gaps that public transport, regular hire cars, and other options just can't cover. I genuinely don't know what I'll do from 2026 onwards except possibly buy a car and park it on my already clogged street where it will sit unused 98% of the time. What a stupid waste of resources that is.
Despairing at this news. I don’t often use Zipcar but whenever I do there’s not really any alternative and I’m always very happy to have done so. This is going to make life much more difficult for a lot of Londoners.
This news is genuinely upsetting. I don't want to own a car, I don't want to add to the congestion in this city, but I rely on using Zipcars 2-3 times a month.
Without Zipcar, it seems the only reasonable alternative is to buy a car that'll clog roads and sit unused the majority of the time. Residential parking permits are dirt cheap, anyway.
I'm sure this will lead to an uptick of people like myself buying cars. It's outrageous that TfL/Mayor of London wouldn't make an exception on the electric congestion charge for car sharing clubs.
We should be encouraging or even subsidising their existence, not pushing them out of business.
Since returning to London 11 years ago we decided not to buy a car but instead rely on public transport and Zip cars when we needed them. More recently my wife has started a small gardening business and books a Zip van at least once a week. This is a terrible loss for London. Our street (Vauxhall) is mostly free of cars but there’ll be another van clogging up the road in the new year. I’m sure many other small businesses will be suffering. Sad times.
Camden councillors were staunchly against Zipcar flex for years. In a recent consultation meeting they refused to believe that Zipcar flex reduced car ownership, in favour of believing their own uncommon sense. The govt really is run like a clown show, but perhaps we are the laughing stock.
I have a vague recollection of replying to a Camden consultation in my area and being surprised how anti-car club the questions seemed to be biased towards. I don't remember the wording but it was something along the lines of how much would you support us restricting car clubs because we think that will mean less cars are owned in Camden.
This is killing me. One of the reasons I used ZipCar is because from time to time we could go for a big shopping in a decent supermarket outside the hell that is zone 2 east London, or get some plants. Basically I moved to Stepney because of the convenience and since I moved here there is one big supermarket gone, the cinema gone, now ZipCar gone, all convenience stores and really bad take aways,making the area poor and expensive. Now with ZipCar gone I have to depend on delivery for these shops and I hate it.
Would be fascinating to know how much Zipcar has to spend in total in parking / licensing fees to London Boroughs. It seems like it's £1000-2000 per vehicle.
Scrapping them wouldn't be enough to fully address Zipcar's unprofitability, but I am sure it would help. Seems absolutely wild to charge more than residential permits, given the social good arising from car clubs.
This news outlet is becoming a secret pro-Lime tree influence operation. And fully worth my subscription too.
Worrying to hear that hiyacar are also in a slightly tricky financial situation – losing Zipcar is bad enough, but to lose both would make that even worse. They did email out to users yesterday following the zipcar news to to stress their commitment to stick around tho, so here’s hoping they might even be able to plug some of the imminent gaps from zipcar’s exit
“The Mayor’s Transport Strategy is clear on the important role car clubs can play to reduce the need for private car ownership. This is why the Mayor recently announced that electric car clubs with a dedicated parking bay in the Congestion Charge Zone will receive a 100 percent discount on the Congestion Charge from January.” - How do they get away with this nonsense unchallenged? If he really was putting car clubs at the centre of his strategy he would, as a minimum, have exempted all car clubs from the charge and, even better, done much more to coordinate and support them.
As a frequent Zipcar user living in Lewisham, this news has really depressed me - Zipcar has been my go-to when popping around to visit friends and family, get to restaurants and gigs, as well as for day trips further afield. My wife and I are already talking about buying a car early next year (something we were looking to do in perhaps 2+ years). We're lucky we're fortunate this is an option - can't envision it being the case for a lot of Zipcar members!
Genuinely sad news about Zipcar - many years ago, when I had a very stressful job in London, I used to treat myself to a Sunday afternoon Zipcar and get out into the countryside or to a quiet part of the coast from my Zone 2/3 flat. Those trips, which would have been impossible via public transport, provided me with rare moments of the joy I needed to recover and prepare myself for the week ahead. Without them, I would have gone stir crazy.
It is the Mayor's explicit policy to reduce private car use as much as possible irrespective of the fuel used. He is simply anti-car. He dreams of a city of people walking and cycling everywhere and has no time for people who say they need a car because they are elderly or disabled or have a lot to carry. The justifications he puts forward for this Utopian vision - air quality, emissions reduction etc do not stand up to scrutiny and it is noteworthy that he and his cronies will still be able to use their cars, just not the rest of us.
This is mostly due to TfL changes in Congestion Charge coming in at the end of the month. Gone is the general exemption for all EVs (which is no surprise as it had been planned for ages), and they are only providing an exemption for the Congestion Charge to Car Club Electric Vehicles "that are picked up and returned to the same bay within the CCZ" (https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/congestion-charge/congestion-charge-changes).
That's the bit I think that's caught out Zipcar, they probably thought that all Car Club EVs would continue to be exempt from the Congestion Charge.
But Zipcar's fleet of hundreds (maybe thousands) of Flex EVs which don't have a designated bay and can be picked up and dropped off anywhere (within reason) will be liable to pay the Congestion Charge (or at least 75% of it as they can get a 25% discount). Zipcar can't afford to eat those costs, and members/drivers won't like it if those costs are passed on to them.
What do Zipcar do? Eat the costs and lose more money? Drop the Flex scheme completely but continue running the remaining cars that aren't part of Flex? Neither of those are practical.
It's beyond annoying that the non-Flex cars are going to be collateral damage in this, and Zipcar know this.
No, I think it's a calculated decision by Zipcar/Avis to call TfL's bluff and say that they'll end all Zipcar operations in the UK. They'll put 71 employees at risk of redundancy in the run up to Christmas and then sell off their 3,000 vehicles. 550,000 Zipcar members in London will just have to make do some other way. No-one will step in straight away, no-one can just ramp up to 3,000 vehicles at the drop of a hat. Many people will have to buy cars/vans to get by and the Mayor's plans to reduce carbon/traffic/parking will suffer hugely. Parking pressure will increase everywhere in London.
All because TfL won't give their Flex EV cars an exemption from the Congestion Charge because the cars aren't "picked up and returned to the same bay within the CCZ".
I suspect that TfL will buckle and grant an exemption and the closer it gets to the end of year deadline the more Zipcar/Avis will ramp up the "Blame TfL not us" message, and the danger is that the longer TfL hold out the more damage it will do to Zipcar.
If TfL don't buckle and Zipcar UK does shut down I'll be absolutely gutted. My Streetcar membership dates back to 2007 before they were bought by Zipcar in 2010 (and then Avis bought Zipcar in 2013). I'll probably have to buy a car to be used 4-5 times a month and parked on my local street unused the other 98% of the time. I've looked into alternatives (short day rentals, etc) and there are a number of reasons why they aren't viable. These are already the trips that can't be done by public transport, otherwise I'd be using the awesome public transport that London does offer.
I used it but it wasn't always as convenient as billed - I had to Uber 25 minutes to the parking bay last time for instance. It needed more density to work. And if you wanted to leave London - the reason a lot of people want a car - for a short trip, it felt very pricey
Nah, the reason for wanting a car is because from zone 2 inwards it is quite difficult to find good retail (supermarkets are being priced out). There are basically no malls in London apart from the two Westfields, and if you want a visit to Ikea or B&Q that is also the most viable option to drive furniture and plants home. Farmer's Market that are longer than one stall? You have to drive. TKMaxx that does not look like the set for a Mad Max sequel? You need to drive. Etc.
I am really angry at this to be honest. Living in London should not be this shit.
You are surprised that inner cities don't have big box retail?
A lack of big box retail is a common feature of pretty much any global city centre.
And having a lack of "malls" in central London was never an issue for me when living in Vauxhall / Oval. Oxford Street / Regent Street / Soho / Covent Garden met all of my shopping needs, and arguably far more pleasant than a Westfield.
No, I am aware that the state of retail in the UK is absolutely pathetic (and London is better than the average!). I am surprised that the UK is an outlier in Europe on this. Every time I go to visit my family at Madrid I can buy loads of stuff without issue, and all my friends who live in there have a decent sized supermarket nearby.
No I'm using YOUR words '“Inner cities”. If you wanted to claim to were talking about “global cities”, which is a meaningful phrase as all cities are in the globe, you should have done so
What annoys me, is that you can't even get a direct bus from Bethnal Green anymore to Oxford Circus, without having to change buses. Bus 8 used to go all the way to Victoria.
Changing buses with shopping and mobility issues is difficult.
I never had this issue where I've lived (Highbury, Hackney, Clapham). There's always a Flex car parked within a 5 min walk, at worst a short bus ride away.
This is depressing news, I use zipcar regularly and rely on it. Owning a car just isn't a viable alternative. Agree that something has gone completely wrong both at Zipcar but also from a policy point of view - it should be a no-brainer to make something like this work.
In the beginning, there was Streetcar. It was small, it was local and it had incredibly good customer service from a call centre in Wimbledon which it was a joy to deal with (not something I can say about any other I have ever dealt with). Then Zipcar bought Streetcar and standards slipped a bit. Then Avis bougt Zipcar and they slipped steadily further. Cars got messier, dirtier and sometimes smellier. In the end, I gave up and bought a car.
Zipcar provided their core service. But their wider service was terrible, and there was never much of an attractive offer for existing car owners to switch.
The news about Zipcar is very depressing. I can't help but think if the economics of a car-club monopoly (or close to it) do not work in a city of c.10m, then something has gone badly wrong in policy making at a borough, city or national level.
I've never owned a car as Zipcar and it's predecessor Streetcar met my needs - shopping, the odd day out, the journey to the tip. More recently, it's meant that I could take my blind and mobility restricted father in law whom we now live with to (endless) appointments, visit friends and, frankly, anywhere not within a 500m radius without taxis and stress. There must be tens of thousands of people who could tell similar stories.
The economics were on a bit of a knife edge, but Avis would be able to prop up Zipcar if Avis weren't in financial trouble of their own. It wouldn't be impossible for someone to come in and get Zipcar moving in the right direction. As others have said surely it should be profitable (or at least break even) given that it's such a useful and welcome service.
However, I think this is more about Zipcar being blindsided by TfL's recently announced changes to the Congestion Charge that are coming in and how that affects Zipcar's large fleet of Flex EVs.
The general exemption for all EVs was expiring at the end of the year as expected but Zipcar was probably expecting TfL to add an exemption for all EVs that are part of a car club. The results of the TfL consultation(s) strongly hinted at that.
But what TfL has done is to only introduce the Congestion Charge exemption for EVs only for Car Club vehicles "that are picked up and returned to the same bay within the CCZ."
So a normal Zipcar EV that has a designated bay is fine. But all of the hundreds (thousands?) of Zipcar Flex EVs suddenly attract the congestion charge (albeit with a 25% discount if registered with Auto Pay).
Zipcar can't afford to absorb those costs and the members/drivers won't like it if those costs are passed on to them.
So I suspect that Zipcar are calling TfL's bluff. Either grant an CCZ exemption for all Car Club EVs (even the ones that don't have a designated bay), or we pull the entire Zipcar UK/London operation, including all of the non-EV cars that live way outside the Congestion Charge Zone. 3,000 vehicles gone, 550,000 Zipcar members in London suddenly having to find alternatives. Good luck TfL sticking to your traffic/parking/congestion/carbon targets when a whole bunch of former Zipcar members buy petrol/diesel cars/vans to get by. Oh and 71 employees put at notice of redundancy just before Christmas. Your call TfL.
I'll be gutted if Zipcar disappears. Similar to person above I've been a Streetcar/Zipcar member since 2007 and it has kept me away from owning a car all this time. Zipcar neatly filled the gaps that public transport, regular hire cars, and other options just can't cover. I genuinely don't know what I'll do from 2026 onwards except possibly buy a car and park it on my already clogged street where it will sit unused 98% of the time. What a stupid waste of resources that is.
Despairing at this news. I don’t often use Zipcar but whenever I do there’s not really any alternative and I’m always very happy to have done so. This is going to make life much more difficult for a lot of Londoners.
This news is genuinely upsetting. I don't want to own a car, I don't want to add to the congestion in this city, but I rely on using Zipcars 2-3 times a month.
Without Zipcar, it seems the only reasonable alternative is to buy a car that'll clog roads and sit unused the majority of the time. Residential parking permits are dirt cheap, anyway.
I'm sure this will lead to an uptick of people like myself buying cars. It's outrageous that TfL/Mayor of London wouldn't make an exception on the electric congestion charge for car sharing clubs.
We should be encouraging or even subsidising their existence, not pushing them out of business.
Since returning to London 11 years ago we decided not to buy a car but instead rely on public transport and Zip cars when we needed them. More recently my wife has started a small gardening business and books a Zip van at least once a week. This is a terrible loss for London. Our street (Vauxhall) is mostly free of cars but there’ll be another van clogging up the road in the new year. I’m sure many other small businesses will be suffering. Sad times.
Zipcar has powered my business for almost a decade. Now we have to buy a van. Depressing.
Camden councillors were staunchly against Zipcar flex for years. In a recent consultation meeting they refused to believe that Zipcar flex reduced car ownership, in favour of believing their own uncommon sense. The govt really is run like a clown show, but perhaps we are the laughing stock.
The refusal of Camden to allow Flex was bonkers cuckoo insane
I have a vague recollection of replying to a Camden consultation in my area and being surprised how anti-car club the questions seemed to be biased towards. I don't remember the wording but it was something along the lines of how much would you support us restricting car clubs because we think that will mean less cars are owned in Camden.
This is killing me. One of the reasons I used ZipCar is because from time to time we could go for a big shopping in a decent supermarket outside the hell that is zone 2 east London, or get some plants. Basically I moved to Stepney because of the convenience and since I moved here there is one big supermarket gone, the cinema gone, now ZipCar gone, all convenience stores and really bad take aways,making the area poor and expensive. Now with ZipCar gone I have to depend on delivery for these shops and I hate it.
Would be fascinating to know how much Zipcar has to spend in total in parking / licensing fees to London Boroughs. It seems like it's £1000-2000 per vehicle.
Scrapping them wouldn't be enough to fully address Zipcar's unprofitability, but I am sure it would help. Seems absolutely wild to charge more than residential permits, given the social good arising from car clubs.
This news outlet is becoming a secret pro-Lime tree influence operation. And fully worth my subscription too.
Worrying to hear that hiyacar are also in a slightly tricky financial situation – losing Zipcar is bad enough, but to lose both would make that even worse. They did email out to users yesterday following the zipcar news to to stress their commitment to stick around tho, so here’s hoping they might even be able to plug some of the imminent gaps from zipcar’s exit
“The Mayor’s Transport Strategy is clear on the important role car clubs can play to reduce the need for private car ownership. This is why the Mayor recently announced that electric car clubs with a dedicated parking bay in the Congestion Charge Zone will receive a 100 percent discount on the Congestion Charge from January.” - How do they get away with this nonsense unchallenged? If he really was putting car clubs at the centre of his strategy he would, as a minimum, have exempted all car clubs from the charge and, even better, done much more to coordinate and support them.
They don't want you driving at ALL. They want you on public transport. That's the end of it. If you vote for the Uniparty this is what you will get.
As a frequent Zipcar user living in Lewisham, this news has really depressed me - Zipcar has been my go-to when popping around to visit friends and family, get to restaurants and gigs, as well as for day trips further afield. My wife and I are already talking about buying a car early next year (something we were looking to do in perhaps 2+ years). We're lucky we're fortunate this is an option - can't envision it being the case for a lot of Zipcar members!
Genuinely sad news about Zipcar - many years ago, when I had a very stressful job in London, I used to treat myself to a Sunday afternoon Zipcar and get out into the countryside or to a quiet part of the coast from my Zone 2/3 flat. Those trips, which would have been impossible via public transport, provided me with rare moments of the joy I needed to recover and prepare myself for the week ahead. Without them, I would have gone stir crazy.
It is the Mayor's explicit policy to reduce private car use as much as possible irrespective of the fuel used. He is simply anti-car. He dreams of a city of people walking and cycling everywhere and has no time for people who say they need a car because they are elderly or disabled or have a lot to carry. The justifications he puts forward for this Utopian vision - air quality, emissions reduction etc do not stand up to scrutiny and it is noteworthy that he and his cronies will still be able to use their cars, just not the rest of us.
Utter nonsense from a clueless fool
Stop making up scenarios in your head and hurting your own feelings Jonathan.
You and Michael are both idiots if you don't see the truth staring you in the face.
Every major city in the civilised world is making moves to reduce traffic, promote the use of public transport, and increase green spaces.
Are they all anti-car too?
If what you say is true (it isn't) then , yes, they are clearly anti-car because they want fewer cars.
Wanting less of something does not automatically make you anti something.
If you cut your grass because it's too long you're not anti-grass. You're anti-too-long-grass-in-your-garden.
I'm anti-too-many-cars-in-London not anti-car.
Would you say the men who go into Richmond Park every year and cull the deer are anti-deer?
The council are killing car drivers?
Sources of those truths?
This is mostly due to TfL changes in Congestion Charge coming in at the end of the month. Gone is the general exemption for all EVs (which is no surprise as it had been planned for ages), and they are only providing an exemption for the Congestion Charge to Car Club Electric Vehicles "that are picked up and returned to the same bay within the CCZ" (https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/congestion-charge/congestion-charge-changes).
That's the bit I think that's caught out Zipcar, they probably thought that all Car Club EVs would continue to be exempt from the Congestion Charge.
But Zipcar's fleet of hundreds (maybe thousands) of Flex EVs which don't have a designated bay and can be picked up and dropped off anywhere (within reason) will be liable to pay the Congestion Charge (or at least 75% of it as they can get a 25% discount). Zipcar can't afford to eat those costs, and members/drivers won't like it if those costs are passed on to them.
What do Zipcar do? Eat the costs and lose more money? Drop the Flex scheme completely but continue running the remaining cars that aren't part of Flex? Neither of those are practical.
It's beyond annoying that the non-Flex cars are going to be collateral damage in this, and Zipcar know this.
No, I think it's a calculated decision by Zipcar/Avis to call TfL's bluff and say that they'll end all Zipcar operations in the UK. They'll put 71 employees at risk of redundancy in the run up to Christmas and then sell off their 3,000 vehicles. 550,000 Zipcar members in London will just have to make do some other way. No-one will step in straight away, no-one can just ramp up to 3,000 vehicles at the drop of a hat. Many people will have to buy cars/vans to get by and the Mayor's plans to reduce carbon/traffic/parking will suffer hugely. Parking pressure will increase everywhere in London.
All because TfL won't give their Flex EV cars an exemption from the Congestion Charge because the cars aren't "picked up and returned to the same bay within the CCZ".
I suspect that TfL will buckle and grant an exemption and the closer it gets to the end of year deadline the more Zipcar/Avis will ramp up the "Blame TfL not us" message, and the danger is that the longer TfL hold out the more damage it will do to Zipcar.
If TfL don't buckle and Zipcar UK does shut down I'll be absolutely gutted. My Streetcar membership dates back to 2007 before they were bought by Zipcar in 2010 (and then Avis bought Zipcar in 2013). I'll probably have to buy a car to be used 4-5 times a month and parked on my local street unused the other 98% of the time. I've looked into alternatives (short day rentals, etc) and there are a number of reasons why they aren't viable. These are already the trips that can't be done by public transport, otherwise I'd be using the awesome public transport that London does offer.
I used it but it wasn't always as convenient as billed - I had to Uber 25 minutes to the parking bay last time for instance. It needed more density to work. And if you wanted to leave London - the reason a lot of people want a car - for a short trip, it felt very pricey
Nah, the reason for wanting a car is because from zone 2 inwards it is quite difficult to find good retail (supermarkets are being priced out). There are basically no malls in London apart from the two Westfields, and if you want a visit to Ikea or B&Q that is also the most viable option to drive furniture and plants home. Farmer's Market that are longer than one stall? You have to drive. TKMaxx that does not look like the set for a Mad Max sequel? You need to drive. Etc.
I am really angry at this to be honest. Living in London should not be this shit.
You are surprised that inner cities don't have big box retail?
A lack of big box retail is a common feature of pretty much any global city centre.
And having a lack of "malls" in central London was never an issue for me when living in Vauxhall / Oval. Oxford Street / Regent Street / Soho / Covent Garden met all of my shopping needs, and arguably far more pleasant than a Westfield.
No, I am aware that the state of retail in the UK is absolutely pathetic (and London is better than the average!). I am surprised that the UK is an outlier in Europe on this. Every time I go to visit my family at Madrid I can buy loads of stuff without issue, and all my friends who live in there have a decent sized supermarket nearby.
You've clearly only lived in London.
Go to any city in the UK outside of London and there are lots of large supermarkets and stores.
You seem to be comparing a Tier A global city with provincial towns.
Compare London to Paris, New York, etc and it is a similar story. There plenty of shopping. It's just not in suburban big box retail formats.
No I'm using YOUR words '“Inner cities”. If you wanted to claim to were talking about “global cities”, which is a meaningful phrase as all cities are in the globe, you should have done so
What annoys me, is that you can't even get a direct bus from Bethnal Green anymore to Oxford Circus, without having to change buses. Bus 8 used to go all the way to Victoria.
Changing buses with shopping and mobility issues is difficult.
Using a taxi app like Jump, Gett or Freenow is a cheaper way of getting stuff home from IKEA.
I never had this issue where I've lived (Highbury, Hackney, Clapham). There's always a Flex car parked within a 5 min walk, at worst a short bus ride away.
This is depressing news, I use zipcar regularly and rely on it. Owning a car just isn't a viable alternative. Agree that something has gone completely wrong both at Zipcar but also from a policy point of view - it should be a no-brainer to make something like this work.
In the beginning, there was Streetcar. It was small, it was local and it had incredibly good customer service from a call centre in Wimbledon which it was a joy to deal with (not something I can say about any other I have ever dealt with). Then Zipcar bought Streetcar and standards slipped a bit. Then Avis bougt Zipcar and they slipped steadily further. Cars got messier, dirtier and sometimes smellier. In the end, I gave up and bought a car.
Zipcar provided their core service. But their wider service was terrible, and there was never much of an attractive offer for existing car owners to switch.