How EVs stay safe
Contactors, isolation monitoring, crash cut-off and orange cables.
You'll learn
- Explain how evs stay safe in plain language
- Recognise the key vocabulary
- Apply the idea to a real vehicle
Overview
Electric vehicles carry lethal voltages, so they are designed to disconnect themselves from danger faster than a person could react.
In depth
- Contactors isolate the pack whenever the car is off
- Crash sensors open the contactors within milliseconds
- Isolation monitoring watches for any leakage to the chassis
- All high-voltage cable is coloured orange
- Service disconnect lets technicians de-energise the pack manually
After a collision
Treat any damaged EV as live. Do not touch orange cabling, and tell responders that the vehicle is electric.
Key takeaways
Remember this
- The pack is electrically isolated whenever the car is off.
- Crash detection disconnects high voltage automatically.
- Orange means high voltage — always.
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