{"id":634653,"date":"2025-12-15T20:52:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T20:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/634653\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T20:52:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T20:52:18","slug":"khan-urged-to-intervene-to-safeguard-car-clubs-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/634653\/","title":{"rendered":"Khan urged to intervene to safeguard car clubs in London"},"content":{"rendered":"

The warning comes after the capital\u2019s biggest car club operator Zipcar announced it was ceasing its operations in the UK at the end of this year, reports Kumail Jaffer, Local Democracy Reporter<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"CityCity Hall and (inset) a Zipcar van in London (credit Mario Roberto Dur\u00e1n Ortiz via Wikimedia Commons)<\/p>\n

Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan has been urged to stage a dramatic intervention to safeguard the future of car clubs in the capital after Zipcar\u2019s imminent departure.<\/p>\n

Dozens of signatories, including London Assembly members, environmental campaign groups such as Clean Cities, academics and other car club operators have written to Khan today (Monday 15th) to demand urgent action to ensure shared transport businesses can remain viable in London.<\/p>\n

In the letter, seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), the mayor was told that Zipcar\u2019s decision to cease its UK operations<\/a> at the end of this year was a \u201csignificant setback\u201d for his climate and transport goals and raised \u201curgent questions about how policy conditions in our city are harmful to car sharing services\u201d.<\/p>\n

The signatories added: \u201cAt a time when London is working hard to reduce emissions, improve air quality and expand sustainable travel options, the loss of a major electric car club operator is deeply concerning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout decisive action to ensure the viability of car clubs, London risks falling even further behind other global cities that are leveraging shared, electric mobility as a cornerstone of their climate and transport strategies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe withdrawal of London\u2019s main car club operator should be a wake-up call, but it is also an opportunity to redefine and strengthen the conditions needed for car clubs to grow, compete and serve communities across the capital and deliver the associated modal shift and environmental benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter, which comes ahead of an extraordinary meeting to be held in City Hall tomorrow, details four main policy suggestions for the mayor and Transport for London (TfL), including the drawing up of an urgent plan to \u201cfill the gap\u201d left by ZipCar and co-ordination of efforts across London boroughs to support the existence of car clubs.<\/p>\n

It also recommended reducing parking costs for car clubs and radically increasing the provision of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure in the capital to reduce the burden on operators.<\/p>\n

Car clubs are services where members can access vehicles for a fixed period, with consumers usually able to pay by the minute, hour or day. They are either parked at hubs with other shared transport vehicles or left in dedicated parking bays and areas on the streets.<\/p>\n

Seen as an alternative model to private car ownership, they are a crucial part of the mayor\u2019s transport strategy to decongest London\u2019s roads.<\/p>\n

The timing of Zipcar\u2019s decision to suspend operations was not a surprise to many amid Congestion Charge reforms, which will see a 20% price increase to \u00a318 and the end of the electric vehicle (EV) exemption from the levy.<\/p>\n

While Zipcar did not lay out the specific reasons for ceasing their UK operations, the firm has previously warned of the impact that the Congestion Charge changes would have.<\/p>\n

James Taylor, the general manager at Zipcar UK, told MPs in September that the removal of the 100% EV discount could make car clubs \u201ccommercially unviable\u201d in the capital.<\/p>\n

A mayoral spokesperson told the LDRS: \u201cThe Mayor welcomes this letter and recognises that car clubs can provide convenient access to vehicles \u2013 including electric vehicles \u2013 for key journeys that can\u2019t be made by public transport, supporting less congested streets and cleaner air. We want to ensure that car clubs can remain an option for Londoners.<\/p>\n

\u201cTfL and the mayor\u2019s teams are meeting with stakeholders including boroughs and car club operators over the coming days, to discuss these issues and consider opportunities to collaborate with councils to address the short-term challenges in London\u2019s car club market, as well as longer-term solutions to support the sector moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tomorrow Seb Dance, the deputy mayor for transport, and Christina Calderato, director of transport strategy and policy at TfL, will appear in front of the London Assembly\u2019s transport committee to face questions over the demise of Zipcar.<\/p>\n

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More Information about donations<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The warning comes after the capital\u2019s biggest car club operator Zipcar announced it was ceasing its operations in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,195947,26387,393,4884,257,16130,1230,1263,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-634653","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-car-clubs","10":"tag-city-hall","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-london","14":"tag-london-assembly","15":"tag-motoring","16":"tag-transport","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115725570757571966","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}