What your existing tools still cover
Suspension, steering, brakes, tyres, bodywork, 12V systems, HVAC mechanicals and the vast majority of a service still use the tools already on the trolley. An EV is a car with a different power source, not a different vehicle.
This matters commercially, because the barrier to a general workshop taking on EV work is usually assumed to be a full re-tool, and it is not. The barrier is training and the handful of specific items below.
What has to be insulated
Anything that could bridge two points of the traction system, or a live point and the body, while you are working near it:
- Sockets and drive tools for the disconnect, pack fixings and busbar fasteners
- Spanners and ratchet spanners in the sizes your platforms use
- Screwdrivers and nut drivers for covers, connectors and clamps
- Cable and side cutters where any cutting near the system is done
- A torque wrench, because busbar and terminal fixings are torque critical and an uninsulated one is not an option near a live pack
Buy for the jobs you do. An insulated 1/2 inch drive set and a small selection of spanners and drivers covers isolation and disconnection work; pack level work needs more.
Test equipment, and the step people skip
You need a meter rated CAT III as a minimum, and a separate proving unit. Insulation resistance testing needs a dedicated tester, because a multimeter cannot do it.
The step that gets skipped is the second proving. The sequence is prove the tester on a known live source, test the circuit, then prove the tester again. Skipping the third step means a tester that died during step two reads the same as a dead circuit. That single habit is worth more than any individual purchase on this page.
What to buy first if the budget is staged
In order, and this order is deliberate:
1. Lockout and signage. Cheapest, and it protects the people who did not choose the risk.
2. Gloves, overgloves and electrical hazard footwear. Personal protection for whoever is doing the work.
3. Meter and proving unit. Without these you cannot establish the thing is dead, which is the precondition for everything else.
4. Insulated hand tools, matched to the jobs you are actually taking on.
5. Everything else, as the work demands it.
Workshops naturally want to do this in reverse. The tools are the visible capability and the lockout kit is a box of padlocks. Resist it.