Rivian‘s mid-size SUV R2 is set to become only the second electric vehicle playable in Fortnite, after dataminers found a fully modeled version of the unreleased car inside the game’s files on Sunday.
The SUV was launched earlier this month and production is expected to begin over the next few weeks.
The leaked 3D model faithfully reproduces the R2’s signature design — a boxy midsize silhouette with Rivian‘s full-width light bar, while featuring a roof rack with integrated storage, a side-mounted ladder, a rugged front bumper, and off-road tires.
According to multiple X users ‘Loolo_WRLD’ and ‘fortnitecarguy’, the model is scheduled for update v40.10, expected on the first day of April.
EVs in Fortnite
The game, which has more than 400 million registered accounts, had only integrated two fully electric models until now.
The vast majority of Fortnite’s branded vehicle roster — including Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, McLaren, BMW, Mercedes, Ford, Jeep, Nissan, Chevrolet, Bugatti, Pontiac, Ram, and Land Rover — are internal combustion models.
Tesla‘s Cybertruck was the first branded EV added to the game, arriving in July 2024 during Chapter 5 Season 3.
Dodge‘s Charger Daytona Scat Pack was added during Chapter 6 Season 2.
The Porsche 918 Spyder and Ferrari 296 GTB are also in the game, though both are plug-in hybrids rather than fully electric vehicles.
The R2 is set to become the first electric SUV in Fortnite and the first from a pure EV maker.
Brand Awareness
Fortnite’s player base skews young — a demographic that traditional automotive advertising rarely reaches and one that will define EV adoption over the next decade.
For Rivian, which has acknowledged that brand awareness remains limited outside coastal US markets, the placement offers exposure that no dealership network or auto show appearance can match.
Chief Executive Officer RJ Scaringe has repeatedly said the R2 will allow Rivian to reach a broader audience with a significantly lower price.
The vehicle is the most important product in Rivian‘s history — a mass-market SUV priced from $57,990 in its Performance Launch Edition, with first public deliveries expected by the end of Spring.
An Existing Partnership
The Fortnite placement is not a cold collaboration. Rivian and Epic Games have a deep technical relationship that predates the R2.
Rivian‘s in-vehicle infotainment system — used across the R1T, R1S, and the upcoming R2 — runs on Epic’s Unreal Engine, the same technology that powers Fortnite.
In 2023, Epic used a photorealistic Rivian R1T modeled with 71 million polygons to demonstrate Unreal Engine 5.2 at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, showcasing advanced vehicle physics, suspension simulation, and environmental rendering.
In November 2024, Qualcomm and Epic Games announced a joint effort to enhance digital cockpit experiences using Unreal Engine on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon platforms, with Rivian among the featured partners.
The company’s infotainment graphics — including 3D vehicle visualizations and drive mode animations — are rendered in real time using Epic’s engine.
The Fortnite update v40.10 is expected on April 1 as part of Chapter 7 Season 2, which launched on March 19.
Upcoming Models
A US patent application published last week showed illustrations of three different SUV models, with two of them being unseen silhouettes.
Last year, Scaringe confirmed the existence of the R4 and R5 designations, though no prototypes or concepts have been shown publicly as the EV maker focuses on the R2 and R3 models.
