In addition to 700 plus CHAdeMO chargers, and virtually zero of the Euro-spec Frankenplug, there are over 10,000 Nissan LEAFs in Europe (and over 25,000 in the USA). I don't have data on the number of Mitsubishi iMiev and their Euro partner clones there, but there are 30,000 worldwide.
That exactly makes my point. There are 700 CHAdeMO chargers, just past 10k Leafs in Europe (4000 in Norway, which is not in the EU; US number is irrelevant). That means 6000 Leafs in the EU, not all of which have the CHAdeMO connector.
The decision by the EU to not include CHAdeMO in their DC charging guidelines will affect those 6000 Leafs and 700 chargers in the EU. This is still a relatively small number compared to the auto market and potential EV volume! The number of Combo cars out now is irrelevant to this policy (since they will still be supported).
Let's fast forward 5 years later. The number of EVs on the road should be in the 100k+ (if EVs don't turn out to be a complete failure in the market). The DC chargers should be in the 1000s. If the EU waited until then to decide which standard to go with, there will be 100k+ EVs affected and 1000s of DC chargers that potentially need changing. This is much, much worse in terms of impact.
There is no such "US policy". Yes, that would probably be easier if there was, one way or the other, but for better or worse, we will have 3 separate DC charging standards, and I won't be surprised to see some high powered AC three phase charging and inductive (with many standards, no doubt).
Neither SAE, nor GM, dictates DC charging standards in the USA, much to their chagrin.
I'm referring to CARB and local government charging infrastructure guidelines (which is exactly what I'm talking about in the EU). These guidelines will be the basis for installing most public chargers. Of course, those governments don't have a say in private networks (like Tesla's supercharger and Nissan's dealer chargers) and yes, the US federal government has not issued a firm guideline in this regard, but most of the local guidelines I have seen (esp. the updated 2013 versions) talk about dual connector stations.
The often repeated exclusion of CHAdeMO in Europe doesn't pass the smell test with 700 plus units in the ground and over ten thousand CHAdeMO cars; still zero/zero of brand F.
I'm talking specifically about the EU's decision to exclude CHAdeMO from their fast charging guideline. The significance of this is that practically all EU members will be using this guideline to build their public charge infrastructure. CHAdeMO certainly saw this decision as significant enough to respond by letter (and also working hard to get the standard approved by the IEC).
http://green.autoblog.com/2013/01/28/chademo-disappointed-european-commissions-fast-charging/
I'm not saying CHAdeMO is banned in the Europe (which seems to be your impression of what I'm saying).
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I can easily see dc charge station deployment increasing in the future and if Tesla creates the demand then dual stations being the norm.
A Tesla Chademo adaptor may not be available in the US or very expensive (since it has to do protocol conversion), so to get Teslas to charge they will need to support SAE. I'm not saying this will definitely happen, but I'm guessing this is what Tesla would like to happen because they don't want to support a complicate Chademo adaptor instead of a simple SAE adaptor. They haven't announced anything because at the moment they don't want to distract from the superchargers (since SAE isn't available yet anyway).
These two points are exactly what I've been trying to say Tesla's strategy/wishes may be and why they are not in a hurry to make a CHAdeMO adapter for the US market first.
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Ya, I like how folks throw that out there like a forgone conclusion. The Frankenplulg and Supercharger plugs clearly aren't exactly compatible, as there is that little issue of 4 power pins on a Frankenplug (two AC, two DC) and only two on a Tesla plug. As to price of a adapter high power DC circuit, I can't imagine any will be "cheap". Probably cheaper than a CHAdeMO adapter, but not cheap.
A 32kW (400V * 80A using Model S charging voltage) SAE DC adapter will cost exactly the same $100 and work exactly the same as the current J1772 AC adapter (only possible change needed is change the plastic slot on the bottom). This is because SAE designed "DC Level 1" to allow the AC power pins in the top half of the J1772 combo to be used for DC charging (with the two larger additional DC power pins completely unused in this mode):
http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/show...1772-DC-(Combo)-Connector-Adapter-for-Model-S
I expect this adapter to be included with the Model S going forward (replacing the current J1772 AC one).
"DC level 2" (the one that allows 100kW) will use the bottom larger DC pins, but it also only needs 5 pins in total (the two AC power pins are unused in this case) so is compatible electrically with the Model S connector. An adapter for this to the Model S will likely have the two AC power pins disconnected and with a straight shot between the two DC power pins and the Model S power pins (the other three signal pins will then be rerouted around). There might need to be a counterweight on the bottom of the adapter.
The "DC Level 2" adapter would be much easier/simpler (no need to reroute the other three pins) if you can plug in the Combo connector upside down, but I doubt most stations will allow this. But even so, the "DC Level 2" adapter will not be significantly more expensive than the "DC Level 1" one since it's still a pin-to-pin adapter (no protocol translation, no electronics, just pins and wiring).
