One of the immediate costs of Britain’s big experiment with taxing EVs  has been the loss of one of the big car club operators – ZipCar. It is currently in the process of ceasing all its UK operations by the end of December 2025 with bookings will be suspended beyond December 31, 2025.

The decision to withdraw from the UK market was influenced by several factors, including rising operational costs and the introduction of a new daily congestion charge for EVs in London starting in January 2026, and which would have increased prices for customers almost immediately and then we would have the tax of electric vehicles by mileage to help offset a fall in fuel duty from petrol cars, in April 2028, nationally.

This when London has the largest car club market in the UK with a significant fleet and membership of 250,000. Many of us who sold the car and took to cycling, joined these car clubs to have the safety of knowing there was a car always available around the corner for the odd car trip, with our car club membership. Alas this will no longer be the case certainly in London, as l work out how to do the trip to visit my mum on Christmas day without public transport and a car now, as it is too far away to be done by cycling. Clearly being multi-modal has its limits.