Why there is no official list
The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 apply to vehicles with no voltage threshold. HSE's guidance for motor vehicle repair says isolate and prove dead, use insulated tools and GS38 test equipment, lock the keys away, and secure the working area with signs. It names the controls. It does not name the products.
IMI, HEVRA, HSE and the IET have all declined to publish a kit list. HEVRA inspects tools and equipment when it audits a member garage and still does not say what it checks. One training provider's terms state that the employer must own the high voltage tooling. Another sells its own pack for £2,200 ex VAT and says an insurance group helped specify it.
So the list has to be assembled from the regulations, the training syllabus and the questions on the insurer's renewal form. The list below is where the three overlap.
The list, by job
- Isolate and prove dead. A meter rated CAT III 600V as a minimum, GS38 compliant probes, and a separate proving unit. The sequence is prove, test, prove. An insulation resistance tester comes later, when you start diagnosing packs rather than isolating them.
- Disconnect and lock out. A padlock per technician, tags that name who applied them, and a lockable box or station for the service disconnect and the key while they are out. A hasp for when two people are on one vehicle.
- Mark the bay. High voltage warning signs, a barrier or chain to close the bay, and a status sign on the vehicle that says whether it is live, isolated or safe to work on. An insulating mat to IEC 61111 if you work at the pack.
- PPE. Class 0 insulating gloves to EN 60903 (1,000V AC, 1,500V DC), leather overgloves, cotton under gloves, eye protection, and footwear to EN 50321 or EN ISO 20345 with the electrical hazard rating and no steel midsole.
- First aid and fire. An insulated rescue hook or pole to pull a technician clear, an electrical first aid kit with burns dressings, calcium gluconate gel for electrolyte contact, and an EV fire blanket sized for the vehicles you take in. A blanket does not put a pack fire out. It keeps the fire to one car.
Hand tools come after all of that: an insulated socket set plus the spanners and drivers your platforms need, to IEC 60900 with the double triangle on each tool. For a garage that isolates and services, a 25 to 29 piece set covers it. Pack work needs more.
Who buys what
The trade convention is that technicians own their hand tools and the employer owns everything else. Some technicians do buy their own insulated set after Level 3, at £230 to £550 for a socket kit. Do not plan the workshop around it. If you want the tools in the building the week the first EV is booked, buy them.
PPE is the employer's under the regulations. Gloves are issued to a named technician and logged, because a glove test log with no name on it tells an insurer nothing. Lockout padlocks are personal: one lock, one key, one technician, so nobody can remove an isolation they did not apply.
Signs, barriers, mats, the proving unit, the fire blanket and the first aid kit belong to the bay. Buy them once and they stay when a technician leaves.
The order to buy it if money is tight
Buy the controls that protect the people who did not choose the risk first. Signs, a barrier, the lockout station and the padlocks cost less than a set of gloves, and they are what stops an apprentice or a customer walking into a live bay. A lockout station is £100 to £140 ex VAT and a floor sign about £25.
Gloves, overgloves and footwear next, then the meter and proving unit, because without those nobody can establish the vehicle is dead. Class 0 gloves run £30 to £77 ex VAT depending on brand and cuff, and they are the item you rebuy every six to twelve months.
Insulated hand tools after that, then the rescue pole, first aid kit and blanket before the first EV is booked in. A workshop that buys in this order can isolate and lock out a car safely in its first week and add tooling as the jobs justify it.
Tools first feels like progress because the tools are the visible capability. It leaves a garage with an insulated socket set and no way to stop anyone touching the pack while the sockets are in use.
What the insurer and HEVRA want to see
In April 2026 a garage was refused cover for having no qualified EV technician. Renewal forms now ask who holds the qualification, and the next question is what equipment supports it. The answer is a folder: training certificates, the kit list with purchase dates, glove test records, meter calibration and tool inspections.
HEVRA membership runs £600 to £1,560 plus VAT a year and the audit covers tools and equipment. The auditor does not hand over the checklist in advance, which is why the list above is built from the regulations. The regulations are what every auditor and insurer has to measure against.
Keep evidence for the kit as well as the training. The rating is on the product, so a photo of the double triangle and the standard number next to the invoice shows an assessor that what you bought is rated, without anyone having to take your word for it.