Faster acceleration is just a click — and a credit card payment — away in new electric cars as the likes of Mercedes jump on a trend set by Tesla

• Mercedes-Benz and Polestar invite buyers of their electric cars to pay up for more horsepower.

• Both brands recently introduced software updates that boost a car's performance for a fee.

• Tesla pioneered using software updates to unlock special features in its cars.

Mainstream carmakers are following Tesla's lead by offering performance upgrades via costly software updates.

This week, Polestar — the EV startup jointly-owned by automaker Volvo and its Chinese parent company Geely — announced an over-the-air update that boosts the power output of the Polestar 2 in North America.

The upgrade gives Polestar's long-range, dual-motor sedan an additional 68 horsepower, for a total of 476. Polestar said in a release this also drops the car's 0 to 60 mph time to 4.2 seconds.

The caveat is that the update costs a one-time fee of $1,195. It's the latest example in a growing trend of automakers opting to charge customers for an upgrade after purchasing their vehicle.

As vehicles become increasingly computerized and internet-connected, automakers see huge potential in remotely tweaking a car's capabilities or adding new ones altogether — and charging owners handsomely for doing so.