Tesla is being investigated for toxic emissions from its Fremont factory

Bay Area air quality officials have launched an investigation into Tesla, accusing the electric car manufacturer of releasing large amounts of harmful toxins into the air from its Fremont car factory. In a double blow, an environmental group has filed a new lawsuit against the company over such pollutant emissions.

Since 2019, Tesla, which made $17.7 billion in profits last year, according to regulatory filings, has allowed 112 illegal releases of toxic materials, each containing up to 750 pounds of harmful pollutants, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District said in a news release earlier this month.

Even small amounts of ozone, created when the released chemicals meet sunlight, can harm health, especially in children, the elderly and people with asthma, the district said. Other pollutants released can cause cancer and, even in small amounts, neurological, reproductive and developmental harm, according to the regulator, which cited Tesla’s paint booths and paint curing ovens as sources of the pollution.

Tesla did not respond to requests for comment on the district’s investigation or the allegations or claims in the lawsuit.

On May 2, county officials announced they would seek an order to close the two auto paint shops at the Fremont plant if Tesla does not agree to hire outside experts to help reduce emissions.

The district said this week that it had previously investigated pollution from Tesla’s factory and found it was caused by repeated problems in the paint departments’ containment systems and production lines.

“Tesla has made operational changes, but ultimately they were not sufficient,” said district spokeswoman Kristina Chu, adding that the agency may sue Tesla over emissions.

Despite “extensive discussions” between county officials and the company, Tesla has failed to curb emissions, said the county’s request for an order from its hearing committee, which rules on regulatory compliance issues.

Meanwhile, the automaker, led by notoriously anti-regulation CEO Elon Musk, is facing a new lawsuit from a local environmental group that claims Tesla’s “extensive and persistent” emissions are exposing area residents and workers to health-threatening chemicals, including arsenic.

“We feel like profit is more important than being a good neighbor and supporting human health,” said Tanya Boyce, executive director of the Environmental Democracy Project, a nonprofit that filed the lawsuit last week in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Boyce pointed out that the children attend Bringhurst Elementary School, which is just a mile from the Tesla plant.

Her group’s lawsuit points to a “long history of noncompliance with environmental laws” at the factory, alleging that Tesla violated federal air quality regulations more than 160 times between January 2021 and January 2024.

Tesla’s documents filed with the lawsuit list more than 90 violations of the company’s permit from the Air Quality Authority between January 2022 and June 2023. Tesla almost always attributed the causes to “unforeseen” breakdowns and malfunctions, the documents say.

The air quality agency described Tesla’s emissions as “predictable” in its press release.

The Environmental Democracy Project addresses pollution affecting communities of color. The city of Fremont describes itself as “one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse cities in the Bay Area,” with 63% of residents speaking a language other than English at home. U.S. Census data shows the city’s population is 62% Asian, 21% white, 12% Latino, and 3% black.

In a March letter to Musk, the Environmental Democracy Project said it plans to sue Tesla in federal court for alleged Clean Air Act violations because the air quality agency has not already done so. “This leaves citizens like the EDP to challenge the law on their own.”