To improve the drivability of continuously variable transmission (CVT) vehicle under hard acceleration condition, a compensation control strategy based on effective power was proposed. Different from the conventional control methods, which are dependent on vehicle and road environment information, this new strategy sets CVT input power as the control objective. A power compensation mode was ranked to four classes: holding power, zero power, increasing reserve power, and synthesis control. So, quantification criteria for setting transition curve and optimizing transient condition performance were available. Simulation and experiment results have shown that power compensation control strategy can eliminate the harmful effect of power decrease caused by engine -flywheel inertia and too fast ratio shift -rate. Drivability has been improved under transient conditions.