The five things you cannot start without
- Insulated hand tools, IEC 60900. Individually proof tested at 10,000V so they can be rated for live working up to 1000V AC. A thick plastic handle with no marking is not an insulated tool.
- Class 0 insulating gloves, EN 60903, plus leather overgloves. Rated for 1000V AC working. Visual and air tested before every use, retested to schedule.
- A CAT III or CAT IV meter and a separate proving unit. Proving dead is prove, test, prove. A meter that failed silently between step two and step three is the reason step three exists.
- Lockout and isolation. A padlock per technician, a tag that names who applied it, and somewhere secure the service disconnect lives while it is out.
- A marked working area. Signs and barriers that stop somebody who does not know what is happening from walking into it.
A workshop with four of the five is not 80% of the way there. The gap is where the incident happens.
What gets bought and what gets postponed
The pattern is consistent across workshops that buy item by item. The tools get bought first, because they are the interesting purchase and the one that feels like capability. Gloves get bought second. Lockout, signage and fire provision get postponed, because none of them make a job possible that was not possible yesterday.
That is exactly backwards from a risk point of view. Insulated tools protect the person holding them. Lockout and signage protect everyone else in the building, who have not consented to the risk and often do not know it is there.
If budget has to be staged, stage it the other way round: controls that protect bystanders first.
Standards, and what they actually tell you
- IEC 60900 covers insulated hand tools for live working up to 1000V AC. Look for the double triangle marking and the voltage rating on the tool itself.
- EN 60903 covers insulating gloves. Class 0 is the 1000V AC rating relevant to vehicle traction systems. Class 00 exists at 500V and is not enough for most EV work.
- EN ISO 20345 covers safety footwear. You want the electrical hazard rating, and you specifically do not want a steel midsole near a traction battery.
- CAT ratings on meters describe how much transient energy the instrument survives, which is a different question from the maximum voltage it can display. A meter that reads 1000V but is rated CAT II is not suitable.
Certification belongs to a product and its marking, not to a brand. A manufacturer that makes certified tools also makes uncertified ones.
What the equipment does not do
None of this makes anyone qualified. Equipment is one leg of a safe system of work, and the other two are training and procedure. IMI Level 3 or Level 4 EV qualifications, a written safe system of work, and somebody competent supervising it are what make the work safe. The kit is what makes a mistake survivable.
It also does not permit live working as a matter of routine. The Electricity at Work Regulations treat working live as the exception that needs justifying, not the default. Isolate, prove dead, then work.