Tesla Slapped With Fine For Polluting – Not With Its Cars, But Its Fremont Plant

Palo Alto-based EV automaker Tesla has been fined $139,500 due to excess air pollution coming from its Fremont factory.

Tesla has already agreed to pay the fine and will also install a solar array on the roof of a San Jose Boys and Girls Club as part of the settlement reached with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.

The company says that several pieces of malfunctioning equipment at the plant were at fault for the elevated levels of nitrogen oxide registered between 2013 and 2016.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the issue has been fixed and the plant is now in compliance with air pollution limits.

“Although Tesla develops electric vehicles and related technologies that California needs to address global climate change, the company still must comply with all their permit conditions,” stated district exec Jack Broadbent.

The Fremont factory now employs over 10,000 people and has received mostly positive feedback from the air quality district, with a spokesman stating that the company had only one prior penalty for $1,000 due to issues related to a furnace in 2013.

However, back in 2010, Tesla also agreed to pay a $275,000 fine to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failing to get a certificate of conformity to specify that its original car, the Tesla Roadster, complied with the Clean Air Act.