A lawsuit against Tesla has been filed in Fremont, California, over air pollution resulting from factory operations.

• The Environmental Democracy Project is suing Tesla over its "continued failure to adhere to the Clean Air Act" at its assembly plant in Fremont, California.
• The Bay Area Air Quality Management District previously stated that Tesla had not taken measures to control emissions in Fremont.
• Currently, CEO Elon Musk is advising investors to view the company primarily as a solution to autonomy.

The electric vehicle company in Fremont, California is being sued by the nonprofit Environmental Democracy Project for "ongoing failure to comply with the Clean Air Act."

An environmental group filed a lawsuit against Tesla in a federal court in San Francisco on Monday, alleging that the company has violated a specific law hundreds of times since January 2021 by emitting harmful pollution into the neighborhoods surrounding the factory.

Tesla has been criticized by environmentalists for its manufacturing practices, despite its promotion of EVs' environmental benefits. In 2023, Tesla ranked 89 on the Toxic 100 Air Polluters list, and the EPA fined the company $275,000 in 2022 for failing to measure, track, and maintain records about its emissions and for not minimizing air pollutants from painting operations.

In California, Tesla was sued by 25 counties over its handling of hazardous waste materials at its facilities. The company settled with those counties. Meanwhile, in Germany, environmentalists have been protesting Tesla's clearing of forests to build a factory outside of Berlin and the company's water consumption.

Tesla is facing ongoing environmental violations in California, with residents and employees in the surrounding area being exposed to excessive amounts of air pollution, including nitrogen oxides, arsenic, cadmium, and other harmful chemicals.

Tesla didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District, an environmental regulator, has accused Tesla of allowing "unabated emissions" in Fremont that should have been prevented. The agency has issued 112 violation notices to the company since 2019 and is now seeking an abatement order that would require Tesla to make changes to its factory operations.

Earlier this month, the regulator stated that the violations are persistent, regularly occur, and can harm public health and the environment.

The assembly plant's air pollution is due to faulty equipment that releases emissions directly into the air without proper filtration, according to regulators. Furthermore, Tesla employees or contractors are accused of turning off air pollution controls in the factory, particularly when the company faced issues with other paint shop equipment.

Tesla's has a history of repeated fires, CNBC previously reported. The paint shop is where unpainted vehicle bodies are primed, painted, and coated before final assembly.

Tesla's mission is to speed up the global shift towards sustainable energy, as stated in its latest quarterly report.

Instead of focusing on electric cars and solar energy products, Elon Musk has been emphasizing Tesla's research and development in artificial intelligence, self-driving software, robotaxis, and humanoid robots.

Tesla's value should be viewed almost entirely in terms of solving autonomy, as Musk informed investors on the company's first-quarter earnings call. Recently, Musk labeled climate activists as "communists" and shared derisive memes about them on X.

WATCH: How Tesla may have just killed its most important product — Superchargers