[caution] This topic has been beaten to death. But it was a couple of years ago, so I thought I just might be time again with a slightly new angle.[/caution]
The Brazilians appear to be serious about their change from NEMA to their own standards for the 220V outlets. (I hope they stay with 5-15 for the 110-127V outlets)
The first few cord-sets have made their way to the market.
It's a 10 and a 20A plug. The 10A ungrounded plug is just a Europlug with a higher rating, the 20A a Europlug with thicker pins. (Almost identical to the South Korean, I think) Thus, you can now buy what looks like a Europlug with 2.5 mm2 cord!
Anyway, it should be safe to use the thick pin version in Europe as well. (Listed at 16A) The grounded plug has a third pin in the middle, offset 3 mm.
Now, in theory, this could be introduced as a common Europlug by means of:
1. Extra hole in Schuko outlet, like on Italian Schuko outlets. Piece of cake.
2. Extra hole in Danish outlet + higher rating. Piece of cake.
3. Lager holes in Swiss 10A outlets + higher rating + ablong center hole. Fairly easy.
4. British outlet: Continue using 13A plug. The new plug will fit inside the 13A plug.
5. Extra hole in French outlet. Piece of cake but there is a catch below.
Catch: To fit in the French/Belgian/Polish outlet, a 1 mm deep, 4 mm wide "depression"/"track" has to be made in the plug to accomdate the French earth pin. This is technically a piece of cake as the track will be on the opposite side of the earth pin of the plug.
I don't think there is much to stop you if someone was to make these and market. They can and will claim some legal mumbo-jumbo, but some low key political moves should put the EU court firmly in favour.
I was thinking of making 1000 pcs of extension cords, 1 m long and send them to the members of the European Parliament to play with. Of course, the cords will have a warning tag on them: "For political use only"
[This message has been edited by C-H (edited 01-11-2006).]