GE has solved the EV charging issues, by some inch at least. Today they announced the GE Wattstation, in collaboration with Yves Béhar’s Fuseproject. The station has the looks, and functions of electric charging station. But that’s not all; it only requires around 4 hours to fully charging an EV, depending on the car’s battery characteristic.

The design, according to Béhar, is meant to be user friendly and simplicity is in their concept —an LED indicator ring around the top edge is green when the charging point is available, red when it’s not, and blue when it’s in use. In addition, the pillar is designed with a sloping top meant to shed rain and snow, and in the future, the design will be customizable, so that the charge points can blend in with a city’s street furniture. What’s more, the Wattstation is smart-grid enabled, so that it can respond to the loads on the power grid. It also has, potentially, a greater power output, able to charge a car in as little as 4-8 hours, rather than the 12-16 hours it takes with today’s “Level 1″ chargers.

[via Gizmodo]