No, there's no electrical connection and it was said from day one that it would be grip only, but I've been holding onto a glimmer of hope that after the fallout from that announcement they'd come up with a solution, whether it be via bluetooth, remote or something else. Obviously they couldn't/still didn't deem it necessary.
What really irks me is that they've designed the Z's from scratch to be their next flagships and they have two 'serious' flaws. One memory card and no grip functionality. Now if I'm perfectly honest neither of these things bother me directly (can cope with a single slot and only use grip once or twice/year) but it's just the principle of it all. Someone was probably paid a hell of a lot of money to sign off on the fact that it has no electrical connection a grip