Tesla Factory is Ordered to Fix Toxic Emissions. It's Got Over a Year to Do It

The Bay Area’s air quality watchdog has ordered Tesla to take steps to fix problems at its Fremont factory that have led to frequent toxic emissions over the last five years.

In an order issued Wednesday and signed by lawyers for Tesla, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District gives the automaker more than a year to implement a plan to stop the releases originating in the factory’s vehicle-painting facilities.

Tesla had racked up 112 notices of violation since 2019, the district said in a formal complaint filed last month. Each incident resulted in the release of precursor organic compounds — chemicals that react with nitrogen oxides to form ozone — and other toxic air contaminants. Ozone exposure can make it harder to breathe deeply or aggravate respiratory illnesses such as asthma, among other health effects.

According to the air quality district, the releases have stemmed from equipment malfunctions in the Tesla plant’s two paint shops, where the auto bodies and components for the hundreds of thousands of vehicles the facility produces each year are spray-coated.

Most of the malfunctions have involved systems designed to prevent the release of pollutants from the paint shops. The air district’s complaint also notes that releases sometimes occur even when the anti-pollution systems are operating normally.

Failures anywhere in the factory’s production line, “such as vehicles crashing into one another when they are not properly overseen by Tesla staff,” can result in an automatic shutdown of the pollution-abatement systems “even if the abatement equipment is still working properly,” according to the complaint.

The air agency’s order gives Tesla a maximum of about 15 months to retain an engineering firm and devise a process to stop all toxic emissions from the paint shops except in emergencies when releases may be unavoidable. Once the air district signs off on the plan, the company will have six more months to implement it.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the order.

The air district’s case is the second major pollution action against the automaker this year.

In February, district attorneys in 25 California counties sued the company for mishandling hazardous waste at dozens of facilities across the state, including the Fremont plant.

The lawsuit filed in San Joaquin County said Tesla improperly discarded toxic materials — including batteries, fuel and paint — in Dumpsters or at landfills not permitted to accept hazardous waste.

The company settled that case for $1.5 million.