FILE PHOTO: A zipcar vehicle is seen parked in downtown Washington, September 1, 2015. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

VIENNA (Reuters) - Zipcar, the car-sharing service of auto group Avis, will exit Austria by Aug. 6 after five years, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday, adding customers would be offered refunds for fees already paid beyond that date.

Competition intensified in Austria after Zipcar’s rival Daimler overhauled and upgraded its Austrian Car2Go operations in April with a bigger fleet, comprising around 700 newer Smart cars and bigger Mercedes models.

The third player in the Austrian market DriveNow, a joint venture between BMW and Sixt, introduced new convertibles to its fleet in May.

The Zipcar spokeswoman said Austrian operations would end “as part of our ongoing process of evaluation to improve business performance across all markets”.