As someone also in the UK, if you're not charging to >90% you shouldn't need to precondition the battery to get regen (assuming that what you're talking about is preventing the 'wheel with a lightening bolt in it' icon) because it doesn't routinely get that cold here. Just thought I'd point that out in case you bought the car in a cold snap and end up leaving preconditioning on all year round thinking it's always necessary..Thanks to to the OP and the responders for the info on this topic. Since getting my M3 a month ago, I've been slowly learning all the ins and outs of the battery. I've long too been debating the cost/benefit of preconditioning the battery versus not.
What i've concluded is the follows:
- Preconditioning is important to me, because it drives me mad to have reduced regen-braking, even for relatively short journeys
Thanks!
Also, some don't like this because there is a small additional cost involved, but if you use the Tessie app you can set up your own automations that are a lot more nuanced than the ones built in to the Tesla. I have the climate start on a schedule to warm the cabin but it doesn't start anywhere near as early as the Tesla does, because I'm not trying to warm the battery too. FWIW you can also do location based automation triggers, so I have all the routine events we do each week with the kids configured such that the climate starts 10 mins before we get back in to the car after swimming, football, etc..