This week Coda Automotive and GE Energy Industrial Solutions announced a partnership to sell GE’s WattStation home charging stations with the new Coda sedans, which went into production this week, and are slated to go for around $40k.

EV makers are marketing chargers as trendy fashion accessories – the creative eye behind the sleek and futuristic-looking WattStation is hip Swiss-born designer Yves Behar. The wall-hanging wonders will be on display at Coda Experience Centers, the company’s trendy Applesque retail outlets, where you can also sign up with an electrician from the ServiceMagic network to install your WattStation, and GE Capital to finance it.

The WattStation is compatible with any standard EV, and can deliver a full charge in 4-8 hours. It’s rugged enough for outdoor locations, and it has a slightly heated case to repel rain and snow, a colored LED to show the state of charge, and an on/off switch to eliminate any Dracula-like tendencies when not in use.

EV chargers could be a $1.5 billion global industry by 2015, according to Pike Research. GE’s competitors in the field include Ecotality’s Blink and Coulomb Technologies’ ChargePoint.

“The residential GE WattStation design is friendly and so simple to adopt that it will literally change one’s life overnight: No more trips to the gas station, something that surely no one will miss,” said Yves Behar.

Image: Coda Automotive