That was my impression when I first saw it, but the European system works very well and I like it better than the American system now. It is faster and less expensive.
Interesting. Tell me more, if you're willing. Living in a culture that isn't my own has trained me not to make snap judgements about ways of doing things that are different than what I'm used to. However, I have to say, like Bill D below, I don't see how the tiny amount of time and cost saved by this system is worth the tradeoff, on the face of it. It's saving a 40 cent part and 20 cents worth of conduit, compared to completing the run and terminating the conduit into the plug body. The disadvantage of exposing conductors right at the point where hands are most likely to be seems... crazy.
That picture shows the exposed wire kind of defeats the purpose of the conduit. There is probably 2-3 feet of exposed unprotected wire right at the height it would be easy to touch with a hand if the insulation was worn off.
Bill D
The other big disadvantage I see is that doing it this way, you're forced to run cable in the conduit rather than wires. I mean I guess you could, but that would look terribly unprofessional for the 10cm where they're exposed between the end of the conduit and the plug. The extra cost of having to use cable vs wires certainly is far higher than the savings of the tiny bit of conduit and the one conduit adaptor.
Fans of this system, I must be missing something, so fill me in. The marginal benefits seem far outweighed by the requirement to use cable and possibility of electrocuting someone! (Even more so in a fab shop like mine where sharp pieces of metal stock are being swung around. I'd much rather have to have a piece of bar that I'm swinging break a conduit in order to get to live wires than just cutting the jacket of an exposed cable before electrocuting me!)
Note to others who have suggested galv. conduit - I know it's tougher and more professional, but everything rusts where I am - so the PVC seems like a more permanent installation. I have high hopes that my new shop, being much more closed up, will alleviate this problem a great deal, but until I know it will, I'm preferring an electrical distribution system that's rust-proof.
I'm trying to stick pretty close to the German installation method, as I understand it, for my new shop - but in this case, I think I'm going to be making a threading die for M25 and making my own conduit adapters to close the system up like we would in the US unless someone chimes in with a better reason not to, haha!