CVT Transmission: A Platform Technology for On and Off Road Hauling Applications

This paper describes the development of a flexible, scalable, cost effective and efficient Continuously Variable Transmission (“CVT”) that provides significant fuel efficiency benefits in both off and on-highway applications and configurations. The goal of the project was to design, develop and demonstrate such a transmission in both the test cell and on the vehicle. Currently, the innovative transmission is undergoing vehicle testing having successfully completed all previous phases. Through this work the Energy Technologies Institute (“ETI”) is attempting to provide technical confidence in the demonstrated CVT technology to the industry such that it can be adopted by a Tier 1 or OEM. Furthermore, the work shows that both the research and development costs and subsequently the production material costs can be significantly reduced by creating a transmission technology that can broadly apply to both the on and off-highway markets. The next step within the project is to integrate the CVT with additional fuel saving approaches to show how the CVT function can benefit other systems within the vehicle, thus delivering fuel savings.