Lucid Group, an American electric car maker, said on Tuesday that its CEO Peter Rawlinson has resigned and expects car production to more than double to 20,000 this year.

The company's stock price surged more than 10% after hours on Tuesday.

Lucid said that its chief operating officer Marc Winterhoff has taken over as interim CEO. The company said Rawlinson will "resign from his previous position and serve as a strategic technical advisor to the chairman."

Winterhoff said on Tuesday that the resignation was Rawlinson's own decision, but he declined to disclose further details.

"This is a decision that Peter has made after 12 years of day-to-day work in bringing the company to where it is today... It's time to step aside and pass the baton to someone else," Winterhoff said.

Rawlinson said in a statement on social media on Tuesday that he decided it was "finally time" to step down after the "successful" launch of the company's second product, a three-row SUV called Gravity. He did not further elaborate on the decision in the lengthy post.

Rawlinson's departure was unexpected. As one of the company's largest shareholders and chief technology officer, Rawlinson often touted his passion for and holdings in the automaker. In July 2021, he took Lucid public through a reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).

Lucid said its board has begun a search for a new CEO.