Amid Elon Musk's social media antics, it's easy to forget he has electric cars to deliver — but there are Australians who have not forgotten.

From 2016, locals could pay $1,500 to save a spot in the queue for his Model 3, which has been sold as Tesla's mass-market sedan.

Waiting was expected. There have been production delays, and a Tesla spokesperson said right-hand drive vehicle manufacture will begin mid next year, with deliveries expected to begin shortly after that.

Yet for some, the magic is wearing thin.

Ashley Fanning and her partner signed up for a Model 3 in 2016 in Melbourne, but gave it up in July.

They'd bought into a vision — contributing to the progress of electric vehicles — but what they saw as scant communication from the company about local timing and pricing left them cold. The car starts at US$35,000, but the final Australian price is unclear.

"I have no idea if it's ever going to show up, and if I'm going to be able to afford it," she said.

Mr Musk's recent Twitter activity — going into combat against journalists, armchair critics and rescue divers — made her decision easier.

"I'm not at all loyal to the brand like I felt I was when I subscribed," she said.

"You see him call that guy a 'pedo'," she said, referring to a July incident, in which Mr Musk apologised after calling a UK diver involved in the Thai cave rescue a "pedo" or paedophile.

"What are you doing — where's my car?"

Waiting, unhappily

It's unclear how many Australians are expecting a Model 3 or how many orders have been cancelled, as the company does not share regional reservation or sales figures.

In the United States, Tesla has pushed back against claims they are being cancelled in significant numbers.

The final Australian price for a Tesla Model 3 sedan is unclear. ( AP: David Zalubowski )

Roll out continues and the aim is to produce 6,000 Model 3 vehicles per week by late August, according to Tesla's recent earning report.

James Thomson, senior industry analyst with IBISWorld, estimated that Tesla took just under a 50 per cent share of about 2,300 electric and hybrid vehicles sold in Australia in 2017 — overall, electric cars still represent just a fraction of cars sold locally.

He added that wait times and pricing uncertainty were more likely to influence consumer sentiment than the CEO's furious tweets.

"For a major purchase like a vehicle, we would expect [buyers] to look past that and focus on the vehicle quality and the level of service," he said.

It's not clear when the Model 3 will be delivered to Australia. ( Getty Images: SAUL LOEB )

A recent Roy Morgan survey showed a majority of Australian drivers would consider buying a hybrid vehicle — and there are some locals who are in for the long haul, although not entirely happily.

Mat Peterson, whose wife Pia Peterson runs an electric car chauffer service in Sydney, said he was prepared to wait for the Model 3 like he waited for previous models.

"I'm used to waiting with Tesla," he said. "We call it 'Elon time'."

Nevertheless, Mr Peterson maintained he is quite vocal with friends and on social media that Mr Musk should "pull his head in".

"We'll continue to support the company rather than him," he added.

One Sydney man, who did not want to be named, cancelled his Model 3 pre-order this year after Mr Musk's behaviour helped tip the balance.

He said the lack of clarity about release dates contributed to his "general bad vibe", as well as reports in US media that the Model 3 was being partly built in a car park tent to ramp up production.

"Seeing parts for the Model 3 being built in a tent really turned me off. If I'm buying a new car … I would like it to be built to the highest possible standards, and that wouldn't give me confidence," he said.

"Reading reports of employees being expected to work such long hours to [reach] targets, that turns me off from a welfare point of view, but it also turns me off because I don't feel like it's sustainable."

Tesla has disputed accounts of employee mistreatment.

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Open to other options

Technology commentator Anthony Agius in Melbourne said he put his name down for the Model 3 in 2017.

The focus was simply on leaving carbon emissions behind by owning an electric car. And so if there were other options he would be open to them, not least because of Mr Musk's recent behaviour.

"I don't want to support his actions, but I want the car," he said.

Mr Agius suspects Australia won't see a Model 3 until late 2019, or even 2020. "Hopefully by then maybe there will be some other car companies that sell electric cars, that will sell what I need," he added.

It's a sentiment shared by Ms Fanning.

"By the time it is in market in Australia, which is who knows when, somebody else will have something," she said.

Although Australians don't have much choice currently, IBISWorld's Mr Thomson said there were about 10 electric vehicle competitors scheduled for release into the Australian market over the next 12 months.

"These [are] major car makers, who have a long history of successfully manufacturing vehicles, and a lot of assembly line experience," he said.

"They'll continue to eat into Tesla's share of the electric vehicle market."

So could another tweet from Mr Musk cause a Model 3 queue exodus?

Mr Agius said personally, he did have a line.

"Words are cheap on Twitter. He's just mouthing off … If the actions that he did were more severe, let's say he started giving money to some racist group or things like that, that's a different story," he said.

"If he wasn't rich, he'd be pretty easy to ignore."

Tesla declined to comment.