ZnTe nanowires, grown by a vapor-liquid-solid technique are p-type and show a very high intrinsic resistivity. Enhancement of the nanowire conductivity was investigated by vacuum annealing, doping and Joule heating. The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics were measured in all cases and electrical parameters such as resistivity, carrier concentration and mobility were computed from the I-V curves. An improvement of five orders of magnitude in the electrical conductivity was seen after thermal annealing and Joule heating, comparable to the enhancement in conductivity obtained by doping. Published by Elsevier B.V.