Tesla is being sued for alleged racial discrimination and harassment by a California regulator which claims the electric carmaker operates “a racially segregated workplace”.

The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) said it had received “hundreds of complaints” from workers at the Fremont factory.

Tesla called the lawsuit “misguided”.

It said it “strongly opposes all forms of discrimination and harassment” and will ask the court to pause the case.

Tesla said this would allow it to “take other steps to ensure that facts and evidence will be heard”.

Kevin Kish, director of the DFEH, said the agency “found evidence that Tesla’s Fremont factory is a racially segregated workplace where black workers are subjected to racial slurs and discriminated against in job assignments, discipline, pay and promotion”.

It claimed that employees would refer to areas where Black or African-American staff worked with racist historical names, such as “the plantation”.

The lawsuit, filed after an investigation by the agency, also alleged that one worker heard racial slurs “as often as 50-100 times a day”.

But Tesla claimed that over the past five years the DFEH has been asked by individuals to investigate the company on nearly 50 occasions.