I think we are discussing different eras. There were many phases to the Oakridge story. Once, they made cells and assembled actual products in the Sarno road facility. The actual quality of these products is unknown to me. But when the company was relocated to Palm Bay and Lee Arrowood and the initial team dismissed, Steve Barber changed his story.
From Spring 2016 forward, the sales pitch to employees and visiting investors was that Oakridge would design and assemble products made from cutting edge, latest generations cells from Japan. Barber claimed to have a unique pipeline to superior cells because of his business relationships there. Products were designed by the engineering team in 2016 that were all powered from Japanese lithium ion cells of common formats.
None of the new products designs that were shown to potential investors could be made from the small pouch cell making equipment in Palm Bay. So there was no plan to "modify" the existing equipment to make the new products, this could not be done.
The best proof of that is found in the press release where Barber claims to want to partner with a Florida University to turn the Palm Bay building into a Battery University. It is clear that he wanted to donate all the small format pouch cell making equipment to a university in exchange for them taking over the lease, thus freeing him to start from scratch in another building. I've been told that no Florida University was ever remotely interested.
