I think that there are several ways to implement the kind of control that Andy is suggesting without there literally being a button that says pre-warm battery (although that would probably still be more acceptable to my wife). I think the key is that battery warming is explicitly part of any functionality to prepare the car rather than a seemingly accidental side effect of pre-heating the cockpit, that for unknown reasons doesn't work if the range control is on (even when on shore power). The current situation doesn't really make sense and now that more of us will use range mode (to improve P85D range management) we are more likely to end up driving with a cold battery which presumably reduces range anyway and of course reduces regen, making driving characteristics abnormal.
Well said, Greg! Thanks for the support!
From reading posts in various threads we know that many people who never or rarely used range mode before are using it regularly now. And I've got to say, remembering to turn range mode on and off is just as much of an annoyance as I expected it to be! I hate that when my wife returns home from work instead of asking her how her day was, the first thing I usually ask her now is, "Did you remember to turn off range mode?" I know that sounds ridiculous, but if I'm thinking about it at the time, I figure I better check with her immediately, because we're not going to think of it later, and if she forgot, she's not going to have any regen when she leaves for work in the morning.
I'm really hoping that when Tesla sees how many people think this is an important issue they will significantly improve the current setup.