Belgian Executives in Automotive: Danny Grobben, Vice President Automotive Sales at TomTom
A Belgian geographer travels – and maps – the world
A fascination for maps and travel
“I have always been fascinated by maps and by travel, and I still am,” Danny Grobben says from his Detroit home. His passion lead him to a career path from Leuven and Ghent to India, then to China, South Africa and Latin America, to anchor in the heart of America’s traditional automotive industry in Detroit, Michigan.
In our interview series with leading Belgian executives in the global automotive industry, Automotive TECH BELGIUM talked to Danny Grobben. His experience in the mapping industry spans four continents and three decades. At the end of last year, he celebrated thirty years with TomTom, a global leader in mapping and location technology. Founded in 1991 and headquartered in Amsterdam, TomTom released its first satnav device in 2004, which quickly became one of the fastest-selling consumer technology devices in history. The company, which has now shifted its focus to the B2B market, has over 3.700 employees worldwide and operations in 22 countries.
When Danny Grobben started at Tele Atlas, the mapping company behind TomTom, GPS was still a military technology. Back then, creating maps without a positioning system was a manual process, requiring significant manpower. Today, artificial intelligence is used to process changes in the real world in a digital map in near real-time. “The transformation over the past 30 years has been phenomenal,” Danny recounts.
Danny Grobben, who hails from Hechtel-Eksel, spent a year at KU Leuven before joining Tele Atlas in Ghent in 1994. Starting in project development, but soon moved to the east when Tele Atlas shifted production to India in 1998. This facility grew from scratch to 850 employees working in three shifts in just three years. “Basically to digitise the world,“ Grobben recalls. “Soon we felt we needed a stronghold in the US, and acquired mapping company Etak Inc in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2001. The main challenge was to integrate all data and systems in one global application.”
In 2005 Danny Grobben moved to China. In that period the industry was booming there and all major western companies were establishing a presence in China, including the international customers of Tele Atlas. This was the start of his strong involvement in the automotive industry. Map making was a protected industry in China and highly regulated. Working as a western company in a joint venture with a 49 percent stake in China was a frustrating experience for Danny Grobben due to the restrictions and controls. “But we used our Chinese presence as a stepping stone to other Asian countries and eventually to Africa. That was the time – 2008 - when TomTom acquired Tele Atlas, and when we took a controlling stake in a company in South Africa. This enabled us to produce digital maps of all African countries.” Danny Grobben was MD here from 2009 through 2014.
After that Danny Grobben moved to Chile since South America was at that time uncharted territory for TomTom. “We wanted to be a truly global player, so initially worked half time in South Africa and in Chile and Brazil. But we were still very much a European focused company, and we felt we needed to accelerate our presence in the US and in the automotive industry. And I was asked to move to where I am currently, in Detroit, Michigan and since early 2024 as VP Automotive, covering both North and South America.”
Automotive
Since 2005, Grobben’s focus shifted heavily toward the automotive sector. He led initiatives to supply digital maps for automotive applications in China, working closely with major OEMs like BMW and Volkswagen. Today, automotive accounts for more than half of TomTom’s revenue, making it the company’s largest and fastest-growing segment. Grobben explains: “We depend directly on car production. When production dips, so does our revenue.” Despite recent challenges - from supply chain disruptions to Chinese competition - Grobben remains optimistic. “The automotive industry is tough right now, but TomTom’s innovation and adaptability positions us well for the future.”
Grobben’s career defies the stereotype of the Flemish professional who remains close to home. With assignments across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, he’s become a global leader. Reflecting on his journey, Grobben’s passion for maps and technology remains undiminished. “I’ve been obsessed with maps since my university days,” he says. His international career took off when his organisation started to see him as a ’builder’ or a ‘consolidator’, he explains. “I was a project developer at Tele Atlas when I was asked to write a business plan to set up shop in India. My boss figured that my knowledge of our core business to develop digital maps was indispensable, so he told me he thought I should buy a ticket to India.”
2024 – a year in transition
2024 has been a transition year for Danny Grobben. “I shifted roles from managing key accounts, like Stellantis, to a leading role as VP Automotive for the Americas. It involved getting to know our entire customer base consolidating supply agreements for the long term. One of the highlights has been setting up global account structures—a significant change for customers like Subaru, whose primary market is North America but which is traditionally managed in Japan. TomTom also made great strides this year by launching Orbis Maps, a new mapping platform based on an open-source, open-platform approach. This shift marks a departure from our previous walled-garden strategy.”
And 2025?
Danny Grobben: “For 2025, the challenges are immense. The automotive industry is undergoing significant turmoil as OEMs face the transition to software-defined vehicles (SDVs). Traditional OEMs are struggling to adapt to a software-centric mindset. Additionally, electrification still faces resistance from mainstream consumers, and OEMs feel pressure from faster-moving Chinese competitors. Safety and autonomy demands also push costs higher, adding to their struggles. For TomTom, these challenges mean delayed sourcing decisions as OEMs extend their reliance on legacy platforms.”
Lessons from China
Danny Grobben believes that Belgian companies can learn lessons from China. “China’s strength lies in decisive action and collective focus. They have fail fast, learn faster mentality, particularly with over-the-air (OTA) updates in vehicles. While traditional OEMs view OTA as a daunting challenge, Chinese companies embrace it as standard practice, enabling rapid innovation and problem-solving.
Another key lesson is fostering partnerships over short-term supplier relationships. Chinese OEMs work iteratively with their partners to develop and refine platforms, avoiding the costly mountains of engineering that traditional OEMs incur with every new car program. Traditional OEMs are still rooted in old supply management practices. They need to shift from viewing companies like TomTom as mere suppliers to seeing us as long-term partners. Without this mindset shift, they’ll struggle to keep up with faster innovators like Tesla, who operate at a fundamentally different speed.
The OEMs that can transition their mindset from traditional supply management to software-driven innovation will survive. Others may not. One example of this shift is the 5.8 billion USD joint venture between Volkswagen and Rivian, a startup company from California. Rivian is probably the closest follower to Tesla in terms of a software-defined vehicle architecture, centralised systems, and over-the-air updates. Volkswagen is now investing in Rivian, and I think it’s a smart move because it helps them transition through this period.
Another example is the consortium Mobility in Harmony (MIH), of which TomTom is a member. The consortium exemplifies the kind of collaborative, open-platform innovation that traditional OEMs often overlook. MIH’s approach to SDVs could become the industry norm, just as Chinese advancements in electrification have caught European OEMs off-guard. If legacy OEMs don’t adapt, they risk being sidelined by these emerging platforms.”
SMEs: “Focus on a niche where you can lead”
Danny Grobben sees two trends in Automotive. “First, OEMs are consolidating to reduce costs and build common platforms, as seen with Stellantis and potentially with Honda and Nissan. Second, OEMs are vertically integrating to control core components. For SMEs, the key is to develop assets and IP that are necessary but not core to OEMs. For example, location-based services like navigation software or traffic data are essential but don’t need to be owned by OEMs.
SMEs should focus on niche products, like battery management, ADAS, or AI for vision systems, where they can lead in technology and build long-term partnerships. It’s definitely challenging to operate in today’s automotive world. But there are opportunities, especially with new players like Qualcomm, which has moved from chips to software. It’s about finding the right niche and excelling in it.”
A Time for Transformation
Danny Grobben concludes: “The automotive industry is at a crossroads. To thrive, OEMs must embrace partnership-driven models, prioritise rapid innovation, and rethink their approach to software and autonomy. TomTom’s role is to be a catalyst for this change, helping OEMs navigate the challenges ahead and position themselves for long-term success."
