 It seems that investors appear to have turned their focus in the new year from the company's CEO to basic business drivers influencing stock price movement. Despite significant manufacturing issues, Tesla's fourth quarter earnings release demonstrated solid operational profits and free cash flow. For those of you who are interested in this stock I advise you to continue to keep an eye on the company's recent price cuts on its electric vehicles, but it's anticipated that Tesla can excel by finding a sweet spot between cost reductions and greater volume. Also, Tesla has lived up to its image as a volatile stock thus far in 2023, but in good news for stockholders, the direction has been consistent. Tesla stock has risen 42% since January 1, with at least half of those increases occurring following the company's fourth quarter 2022 earnings report on January 25. The report now caps off a fantastic year for the electric vehicle maker, which posted record profits and cash flow despite numerous challenges, including global supply chain kinks, shutdowns at its Shanghai production facility due to rampant COVID-19 cases in China, and CEO Elon Musk's attention draining takeover of Twitter. Tesla reported year-over-year revenue growth of 37% to $24.3 billion in the fourth quarter, with net income of $3.7 billion. Free cash flow fell 49% from the fourth quarter of 2021 to $1.4 billion, owing mostly to a $2.5 billion increase in inventories between the third and fourth quarters of 2022. Free cash flow of $7.6 billion for the full year 2022 was a 51% increase over free cash flow of slightly over $5 billion in 2021. Investors were delighted that, while Tesla's gross profit decreased as predicted due to increasing costs, notably rising lithium cell prices, the company's automotive gross margin of 29% still allowed it to produce a respectable total operating margin of 16.8%. A topic about future automotive gross margins has been addressed. Does Tesla's recent EV price decrease foreshadow a weakening of demand against increased competition? During the company's results call, Musk stated that demand continues to surpass supply, and Tesla is focused on increasing volume while cutting manufacturing costs. According to Musk, orders are currently coming in at nearly twice the rate of production. Tesla's long-term goal of sustaining car production growth at a compounded annual growth rate of 50%, along with vehicle discounts, can be viewed by shareholders as a plan to protect its market dominance while spreading its fixed costs across a rising base of vehicles, and thus realizing greater incremental profit per vehicle. Earlier this month, Tesla reduced the price of its Model Y by up to US$13,000. As Musk noted in Tesla's earnings call, the firm has already hiked Model Y prices, albeit little, by US$500 since the price decrease, so we may expect some price volatility as Tesla finds its desired price volume equilibrium over the next several months. The next quarter's production statistics and automotive gross margin should provide a good indication of how Tesla's volume priority is playing out, as their EV sticker discounts began after the end of the fourth quarter. Throughout 2023, investors will be paying close attention to the energy storage sector, which is on the verge of contributing significantly to Tesla's operating profitability in the near future. Last year, Tesla's total energy solutions deployed increased by 64% to over 6,500 megawatt hours. Tesla prioritizes mega-pack plant capacity expansion, and Musk promised details on future production plans this year. Understandably, the emphasis on Tesla's business is frequently overshadowed by Musk's erratic antics. Investors are more focused on the factors that will influence Tesla's stock over the next several quarters, such as the basic automotive manufacturing fundamentals of cost, volume, and profit, CVP, and their impact on Tesla's free cash flow, at least at the start of this year. Even with big vehicle discounts, I believe Tesla can retain an operating margin in the load of entities, allowing it to continue expanding financially at scale in the near to medium term. Share your thoughts in the comments.