No Diesel smart for USA?

According to this MLive article, smart usa won't be bringing a diesel version of its smart fortwo to the States anytime soon:

"We tried to get the right mix between performance and fuel economy and the diesel engine doesn't provide the kind of performance, I think, that would meet the expectations of the U.S. consumer," Schembri said at a luncheon of the Washington Automotive Press Association.

That's unfortunate as I was hoping to see the diesel smartie pumping up the mileage numbers for the little two seater. Now we could see the micro hybrid drive version here as perhaps a 2010 model (that's just my speculation).