Tiny gas-sipping Smart cars may come to the U.S.

The loss-making city car from Mercedes-Benz may finally be headed to America.

NEW YORK (FORTUNE) – You can see tiny Smart cars, those egg-shaped two-seaters, doubled up in parking spaces or sitting on city sidewalks all over Europe, where they have been sold since 1998. But Smart has never come to the United States. The Mercedes-Benz unit has struggled to make money from the day it was conceived, and writeoffs to date run to the billions of dollars. With losses so steep, plans to sell the car here have been repeatedly delayed as Mercedes has struggled to find a profit-making formula.

Now, DaimlerChrysler (Research) chairman Dieter Zetsche is dropping hints that Smart will make its way to the United States. Speaking to reporters in Portland, Oregon last week at an event marking the 25th anniversary of Daimler’s acquisition of Freightliner trucks, Zetsche said a final decision on Smart for the U.S. would be made this month, once a verdict was reached on how to distribute it.

He added in his German-tinged English, “The tendency is positive in this regard.” Translation: Consider it all but done.

Whether selling Smart in the U.S. is, in a word, “smart,” is another question. Even with gasoline selling for $3.25 a gallon, how much demand is there for a car that can only carry two people and provides little crash protection for collisions from any direction? For a time, Mercedes contemplated selling a Smart sedan or SUV but discontinued both models in an effort in an effort to stem losses.

CNN/Money