Investment in setting up a dedicated electric vehicle (EV) assembly line within existing factory premises will qualify as eligible investment for sops under the Scheme to Promote Manufacturing of Electric Passenger Cars (SMEC). According to officials aware of the development, this was a much sought after policy clarity that global EV makers with manufacturing presence in India were looking for before participating in the SMEC."Guidelines for SMEC are finalised...investment in a new EV assembly line will be eligible for getting sops," a senior government official told ET.Foreign companies, including those with existing facilities in India, can apply for benefits under SMEC, which allows automakers to initially import high-end electric cars at a concessional duty even as they set up local units and scale up production.Several sources aware of the developments ET spoke to said the major ask of carmakers evaluating participating in the scheme is for clarity on what would construe as investment."In the latest round of consultations held between the government and industry stakeholders, company officials urged the government to consider fresh investments in dedicated assembly lines for making electric cars in their existing factories producing internal combustions engine vehicles under the purview of the scheme," a senior executive said. Škoda-Volkswagen is understood to be interested in participating in the scheme. Others like Hyundai Motor India, Toyota Kirloskar and Mercedes Benz India are awaiting notification of final policy guidelines from the government before making any firm commitments, a second executive said. It is unclear whether Vietnamese electric vehicle manufacturer VinFast can participate in SMEC, given that the company has already started investing to make operational its local facility in Tamil Nadu. The company can only avail of concessional duties under this scheme if the government accounts for investments retrospectively under SMEC. In response to a query from ET regarding the company's interest in participating in the scheme, a spokesperson at Mercedes Benz India said, "Mercedes-Benz locally manufactures two world-class BEVs at its state-of-art manufacturing facility in Pune, and we have sufficient capacity for catering to the current market requirement. There are no immediate plans for adding any new BEVs to our local production portfolio."To be sure, any company participating in the scheme is required to make an investment of $500 million within three years for it to avail of concessional import duties. They would thereafter have to roll out EVs locally as per localisation standards specified under SMEC.