I read that while the Alaska Pipeline was being built in the 70's that had to do exactly that during the winter with the heavy equipment lest they find themselves unable to start them during working hours.OTOH,I'm on my third diesel and I've started all three in temps of -20F...-30F ...and even -40F.All three times were after the car had sat outside for 12+ hours.All three,in addition,were/are equipped with auxiliary heaters powered by the battery so the interiors warm up quickly.
I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum in South Texas. I run mine to keep the air conditioner plus I do quite a bit of night fishing and use an invert er to run lights.