Rivian (NASDAQ:RIVN) stock is continuing its streak in the green, bringing the electric vehicle (EV) company’s five-day return to about 9%.

This morning, Rivian announced that it had hired Javier Varela as its new Chief Operations Officer (COO). Varela will replace Frank Klein, who was hired back in June 2022.

Varela spent the last eight years at Volvo (OTCMKTS:VLVLY), most recently serving as its COO and Deputy CEO. Volvo CEO Jim Rowan selected Varela as a Deputy CEO in 2022 as part of the company’s goal to become an all-electric car brand by 2030. Varela has decades of automotive experience and began his career in 1990 at PSA Group, which is now known as Stellantis (NYSE:STLA).

“Rivian’s commitment to pushing the industry forward with technologically advanced, highly innovative vehicles is something I’ve admired for a long time,” said Varela. “I’m looking forward to helping the company scale and continue to innovate as it rolls out R2 and its next generation of vehicles.”

RIVN Stock: Javier Varela Joins Rivian as COO

At Rivian, Varela will focus on improving operational efficiency in relation to procurement, manufacturing, logistics and quality. He will also be involved with the production of the 2026 R2 SUV. The unreleased vehicle had received over 68,000 reservations as of early March and will be built at Rivian’s Normal, Illinois facility.

Varela will take on the role of COO beginning in August and will report directly to CEO RJ Scaringe.

However, the addition of Varela isn’t the only news sending RIVN stock higher today. Yesterday, the Illinois governor’s office announced that Rivian would receive $827 million of incentives to expand its Normal facility through a 30-year package, most of which are tax incentives. This comes after the company paused plans for a new manufacturing facility in Georgia, resulting in estimated cost savings of $2.25 billion.

Rivian expects to invest $1.5 billion into expanding its Normal facility, which would increase annual capacity to 215,000 vehicles from 150,000 vehicles. The facility currently employs about 8,000 people at the facility, while its expansion is expected to create over 550 jobs during the next five years.

On the date of publication, Eddie Pan did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.