There are engineering meetings taking place at major corporations where the “D” word is no longer permissible. These days the diesel engine can only be referred to as a CIDI (compression ignition direct injection) engine or CIDI technology. And while this does appear to be a U.S. only phenomenon, it is gathering momentum and popularity quickly. The mayor of Tokyo firmly renounced the diesel last October.

This comes at a time when diesels are about to become much more prominent an large pickups and also are beginning to test the waters in smaller pickups and SUVs. The diesel also looms large as a handy doomsday machine if CAFE requirements come to crowd out truck and SUV futures.

Cummins has re-engineered the B series for Dodge. The Isuzu Duramax will debut with GMC and Chevy heavy pickups for 2001. The Navistar V-6 is on the way and Detroit Diesel expects to soon announce a European SUV customer for its new 3 L, VR3024 engine. While set to apply diesels in record numbers on the moneymaking side of the house, the auto companies are trying to distance themselves from negative diesel perceptions when rooting for the all-singing, all-dancing green team Olympics. Would you please just drop the bogus spin and say it plain, boys? The modern diesel is a green machine.

CIDI is not new at all, although the latest versions with common rail fuel systems and pilot injection are light years ahead of pre-electronic diesels. With ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel and aftertreatment devices, this will be the power plant that will take us into the fuel cell era. Why do we have to call it something else?

From one perspective it is very ironic that all the major hybrid entries in the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) feature diesel engines, although they are referred to as heat engines or CIDI engines and you won’t find the word “diesel” in any of the current collateral material or press releases. The DaimlerChrysler PNGV display did make reference to the diesel in its hybrid, but I expect CIDI terminology to take over there when Chrysler introduces the latest version of its NGV later this spring.

The PNGV program began back in 1993. It created a partnership between the federal government (including seven agencies and 19 federal laboratories) and the Big Three. At the time, that meant Chrysler, Ford and General Motors. The end point is 2004, when production prototypes are supposed to be fielded that are basically family sedans good for 80 mpg and zero to 62 mph acceleration in 12 seconds. At the Detroit Auto Show, Ford unveiled its Prodigy PNGV and GM unveiled the Precept and both contain an army of marvelous technology in addition to the propulsion systems. A diesel prime mover, or CDI heat engine, is used by both PNGV models.

There are electric concept cars coming. Ford is launching the “Think” family of vehicles. GM has a fuel cell version of the Precept. Honda announced the fuel cell-powered FCX vehicle at the Tokyo Motor Show last fall and said it will be on the road by 2003. It remains for Honda to define “on the road.” All this is well and good. But I believe electric golf carts will still be outselling electric cars four to one in 2020.

The real story is the diminishing role of the gasoline engine, which I suppose people in the “not know” will call SIFI (spark ignition fuel injected) technology. Let’s try the big picture. At one end of the spectrum, look at the PNGV effort as the most serious attempt yet to bring forward family sedans that catapult the auto industry to new levels of fuel efficiency. This program has substance and is harnessing some space age technology — and not for space shuttle prices. And the diesel is the prime mover for these vehicles.

In the middle ground, look at how prevalent the diesel passenger car has become in Europe. Gasoline engines have lost significant market share. And then at the other end of the auto spectrum, we have the heavy pickups and the bruteutes, and the diesel segment is growing fast and could take over with higher fuel prices or a more aggressive CAFE landscape. The SUV marker in Europe is only evolving, but diesel is again expected to be a prime power source.

I fail to see where this charade with CIDI terminology here in the U.S. serves any purpose. It is a shallow attempt to sweep the proud history of the diesel engine into the dustbin, while the new engineering whiz kids lay claim to the advances. They simply stand on the shoulders of those that came before.

This battle of semantics is also a sop to authorities like CARB and SCAQMD to have them reconsider their anti-diesel bias. Fine. Go ahead. Score yet another point for the politically correct.

But the diesel by any other name is still the one to beat. The prospects have never been better.