said by Gone:The fact that it was only put in a production vehicle in the early 2000s is of the same relevance to CVTs being introduced at approximately the same time yet being used for other purposes long before.
DAF in Holland was producing CVT automobile transmissions in the late 1950's.
CVT's were banned by F1 in 1994 due to fears that well funded teams would dominate the production/use of them to the detriment of the sport (ie. make it as boring as Schumacher winning every race for years).
Japan is currently building a new design 48 tonne main battle tank using a CVT derivative.