DAMN!!! 23 cents per KWH!! wow

**edit**
then again, after browsing several articles i guess you guys are simply on the "wheelbarrow" pay system...

read the article about MacDonald's increasing prices because the minimum wage had been increased to $12 an hour...

Yes yes, electricity costs to the consumer skyrocketed after the conservative govt privatised the powercos a little over 9 yrs ago.

What's more interesting (to me) is the hype made by Mitsi (1st mass-produced electric car in NZ etc really consisting of only 2 demonstrators) which was pretty effectively countered by Hyundai's Blade actually going on sale, to anyone, today, at a pice lower than a new Prius.

Those are New Zealand dollars. Converting to USD it's more like 12 cents per KWH, and $6.25 for minimum wage. The electricity is about the same as I pay in the San Francisco area, and California minimum wage is $8. So on those two measures NZ & US are pretty close. I don't understand the bargain we get on a Prius, but I'll take it...

wow... Cali minimum wage has really gone up since i was there. of course it didnt matter since no one paid minimum wage anyway. when i left, the average worker at MacDonalds was making $7 an hour and minimum wage was like $4

You can only take that conversion so far.
If you live here... You earn NZ dollars you spend NZ dollars. So really you do have to look at it as a 1 to 1 conversion.
So, the Min wage IS $12.00 (just about to go up to $12.50) and Power IS 23 cents p/kw

Electricity is insanely expensive, As samiam said mentioned a real case of Privatization doing the EXACT opposite of what they promised it would. (Like I ever believed it would lower prices!)
The good thing down here is most of the power is Hydro generated so is green... as long as you discount all the farmland, orchards and towns that were flooded in the 50's, 60's and 70's to build the hydro dams.

Well that is where the Conversion DOES come in to play.
We all buy Prius from Japan, The US Dollar is Strong against the Yen The NZ Dollar is weak. (And just got a whole lot weaker in the last few months) I have just relocated back to NZ from Canada and really noticing the prices ! Crazy! Amazing what 10 years away will do for dulling the memory!

The $8 is for most workers. Learners and sheepherders are exceptions. I can understand learners, but sheepherders? Goat herding gets you $8/hour, but sheepherding gets you $1422.52 per month. Plus guaranteed mail service at least once a week. The sheepherders get all the perks!

Another factor in the pricing is the different taxing systems, i.e., I believe the New Zealand price includes tax while the United States price excludes tax:

New Zealand price includes 12.5% Value Added Tax.

While the United States price excludes Sales Tax which varies from State to State, County to County and/or City to City, and which range from 0% to over 9%. 5 states charge no sales tax. Here in New York City, I pay 8.375% total sales tax. I believe in California, the total sales tax for most is over 9%.

Thank you for noticing the intended topic Tideland ;-)

Heard how the Hyundai Blade is selling anywhere else?

I'll wait for the FT-EV because I want mine to be reliable. I wonder how Mitsubishi will make the Mi-EV start to blow smoke after 100,000km? Wouldn't be a true Mitsubishi if it didn't.

Story about returning back home. My wife is Scottish, and she had been living in Los Angeles for 20+ years when I met her. The first time we traveled to Scotland she thought that you had to buy petrol by the gallon. We had a rented car with an unknown tank size, the gallons are larger, and the money was unfamiliar (at least to me). So we drive into a petrol station, and she trys to figure out how many gallons to put in, and how much that might cost in USD. Talk about overload. The pumps looked just like any modern pump, with currency calculation and automatic shutoff. But no, the way they do it in Scotland is that you request a number of gallons, and the attendant pumps that amount. It turns out that her knowledge of how to buy petrol was frozen back at least 20 years, and what she knew about it was stories from her parents. The attendant was rather amused at our attempt to calculate the number of gallons required, and suggested that we just fill it up.

Somehow, home is supposed to be frozen in time, and unchanged when you return 20 years later.

I read that, Cool. I wonder what other countries they are going releasing it in? And how long it will be before it is on sale in any real numbers. I hope the usual early adopters (Govt, Councils, Google type outfits jump on these cars and get them in good numbers out on the roads.
I would love one of these (or the Blade) as our 2nd car. But on my budget I will have to hang out for them to get into real production and the price to come down a bit.

It is a long slow road but at last they are coming.... ! Yeah!
Let's hope they don't get crushed this time... heh heh

That's just a stereotype. The iMiev and Blade Electron are apparently pretty quick vehicles ;-)

My home is frozen in time, we still use a coal range and fireplaces for heating, and the dishes are still dirty when I return home.

As I'm discovering, dogs love to help with the dishes. Zuli's got them licked before I can even finish loading the bottom rack of the dishwasher. You do have a non-bipedal non-anthracitic dishwasher, don't you?

My brother-in-law, who's visiting from Palmerston North, thinks my Prius drives just like any other car. I told him about all these EVs coming to NZ, and he simply was not impressed. He wants to get a Ford Mustang if he could afford one. Of course, he's only 26 years old, single, AND he's a Kiwi, so

His mum (my mother-in-law) on the other hand, complains incessantly about her electric bill...

Oh young and silly (And from Palmerston North... what can you say...) , But hey, I used to drive a big ass V8 when I was 20 and thought I was sooo cool. But that was then and this is now.

I have been buoyed by the huge numbers of small cars (sub compact in American speak) Hyundai Getz and the like, that are on the roads. That has been a breath of fresh air coming back to NZ. If I never see another freaking F350 or Excursion again in my life I will be a very happy person.

B