I'm not sure on the efficiency of the automotive type cvt's but the snowmobile ones are quite inefficient. I used to tune them on a dyno (read at the track) and a sled with an 140hp engine was in the 50's at the track (there's a chain gear reduction to rob power on the way there too)... They are necessary in the snowmobile application though as it would be pretty hard to shift gears while plowing a couple feet of snow, especially with a peaky high performance two stroke that makes max power in a 300rpm window over an 8500rpm range...
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