Zipcar, the UK’s biggest car-sharing operator, has confirmed that it plans to shut down all services in London and withdraw entirely from the UK market by 31 December 2025. The move comes after years of rising operating costs, shrinking demand, and a changing regulatory environment that increasingly penalises even electric vehicles.
The company will stop taking bookings from 1 January 2026, making 2025 the final full year of operations. This is a significant moment for London’s mobility landscape because Zipcar has been the dominant car-club brand in the capital for more than a decade.
In recent years, the UK network had already contracted. Zipcar previously withdrew from Oxford, Bristol and Cambridge, reducing the brand to a London-only footprint. The latest decision therefore marks a complete exit rather than a scaling-back.
Zipcar’s UK finances had become increasingly difficult. Losses rose sharply in the last reporting period, and London’s policy changes added further pressure. The end of the EV Congestion Charge discount from 25 December 2025 — paired with a higher £18 daily charge from early 2026 — would have placed extra costs on Zipcar’s largely electric and hybrid fleet.
The company says it will now focus on its North American operations and on destinations where the economics of car-sharing remain more favourable.
Comment: Does Zipcar’s Exit Change the Car-or-No-Car Equation When Visiting London?
For most visitors, the honest answer is no. The decision barely shifts the logic of how to move around London.
Zipcar felt like a flexible option, but its practical usefulness for non-Londoners had already diminished. When Zipcar pulled out of Oxford, Bristol and Cambridge, the opportunity for members in those cities to “pop into London and grab a Zipcar for a few hours” effectively disappeared. And crucially, Zipcar’s international membership structure never allowed someone from Paris, Madrid or New York to simply log in and start using London cars.
So for visitors, Zipcar was always a niche convenience rather than a pillar of journey planning. London itself remains a city where the advice is stable and predictable:
1️⃣ Bringing a car into central London still makes little sense.
Congestion Charge, ULEZ, traffic, parking scarcity — all of this continues, and in some cases becomes more stringent once EVs lose their exemptions. Driving inside Zone 1 is usually slower, more stressful and more expensive than taking the Tube.
2️⃣ If you do need a car, you still hire one — Zipcar or not.
Enterprise Car Club, Co Wheels, Hiyacar, Turo and traditional rentals all remain. Nothing about Zipcar’s closure changes the availability of short-term car access.
3️⃣ If you’re hiring a car in London, you’ll almost always do it on the edge of Zone 1.
Major stations — Waterloo, King’s Cross, St Pancras, Paddington, Euston, Victoria — sit at or just outside the Congestion Charge boundary. This was true before Zipcar’s exit and remains true after. You pick up the car, leave central London, and head for the suburbs, countryside, coast or wherever your day trip takes you.
4️⃣ Driving inside central London offers very few advantages anyway.
Visitors rarely want a car within London. A car becomes useful only once you’re well beyond the dense, transit-rich heart of the city. These are zones where congestion charging no longer applies and parking becomes normal again.
Bottom Line
Zipcar’s departure is a notable headline, but it doesn’t alter the underlying truth about mobility in London:
✨ If you’re visiting London, you still come car-free.
✨ If you need a car, you still hire one — just not from Zipcar after 2025.
✨ And if you hire, you collect it on the edge of central London and drive outwards, not within the city centre.
Zipcar leaving the UK creates minor inconvenience, but not a fundamental shift. The city remains one of the world’s easiest places to visit without a car — and one of the most inconvenient to drive in.