In a statement, the firm said that it would pulling out of the UK from the 30th May 2014. The scheme was launched in London in December 2012 and expanded to Birmingham in May 2014, marking the 19th city around the world to offer the car2go scheme.

Wendy Ferris, car2go’s marketing and event manager, said: ‘We’ve listened closely to customer feedback and taking the UK’s strong culture and tradition of private vehicle ownership into account, we have decided to withdraw from the UK market place.

‘This is a long-term decision and we will continue to use the insights gained from our presence in the UK to develop, adapt and improve the concept of car2go, leaving the possibility of a return to the English market open in the future.’

She added: ‘As the world’s largest free-floating car sharing provider, we operate in a total of 25 cities around the world with more than 700,000 customers. We will continue to observe the UK market for cultural changes towards the “free-floating” model.’

Under the Birmingham scheme, drivers had to pay a one-off registration fee of £29.90 and could then locate any available car – the scheme used a fleet of smarts – get in and drive off.