When asked to describe their "transmission", Toyota has frequently said that it is a e-cvt because it feels like a cvt to the driver. In point of fact, the prius does not have a mechanical transmission in the the traditional sense, cvt or otherwise. It has a power split device which directs power through an electrical path to the traction motor or to a one-speed mechanical path. The result is that the "transmission" has seven moving parts instead of the (100s?) of parts in the Honda Insight, which does have a conventional cvt transmission. The prius is complicated, but only in the software, and software doesn't rust...