Marelli

Marelli Europe S.p.A.
Partner Information
Based	Corbetta, Lombardy, Italy
Founder	Ercole Marelli
Announced	August 2026
Broke
Role	Front MGU supplier
Official Website	[]

Marelli Europe S.p.A. (previously known as Magneti Marelli S.p.A.) is an Italian automotive component manufacturer which provides parts and compontents to various manufacturers and industries, and was previously a subsiduary of FIAT. The firm had previously worked in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship as a technical partner of Mahindra Racing during the Gen 1 Evo era, before signing a deal to supply front powertrain components and designs for the Generation 4 ruleset.

From 2024/25 Marelli would also sign a deal to work as a technical partner of the Nissan Formula E Team, initially in an advisory and analytical role. Marelli had also previously worked for the Series as a supplier of monitoring technology, providing systems to track whether teams were using traction control and the LED system for the Generation 3 cars.

Background

Marelli's history can be traced back to 1919, when it was founded by FIAT and Ercole Marelli to develop parts for the Italian manufacturer, originally named Fabbrica Italiana Magneti Marelli, based in Sesto San Giovanni near Milan. The group initially built magnetos for aircraft and motor vehicles, although as time went on the group would specialise in various other electronic systems across a spectrum of industries, including telemetry. In 1967 the group became a subsidiary of FIAT, and would create a global netwrok of research and development hubs and partnerships, as well as acquire a number of its own subsidiaries in numerous places.

Marelli would also emerge as a leading name in motorsport applications, with partnerships with fellow Italian brand Ferrari its most notable success, providing electronic systems for the Scuderia at various times for their Formula One team. The group would also supply systems for the MotoGP Series and the World Rally Championship, while also creating various bespoke systems for automotive manufacturers such as Ford. The group would also form a long-lasting relationship with the FIA to provide telemetry systems for its various championships.

In 2018 FCA would sell the Magneti Marelli group to KKR, where it was soon merged with Japanese equivalent Calsonic Kansei in May 2019 to form Marelli Europe S.p.A.

Formula E History

Marelli was first enticed by the ABB FIA Formula E Championship when the series revealed partway through the inaugural season that powertrain development would be opened from the 2015/16 season onward. Reacting quickly, Marelli would develop their first design during 2015, before signing a deal to supply Mahindra Racing as a technical partner with that design for the 2016/17 season, while also selling extra examples of their system to other teams. The Mahindra partnership would last until the end of the 2017/18 season, with Marelli instead focusing on projects elsewhere and its own electronic monitoring systems for the FIA.

Marelli would subsequently return to the FE paddock as a technical partner to the Nissan Formula E Team, in a two year deal announced on the eve of the 2024/25 season, initially providing advice and analytics rather than actual components, a result of the Nissan e-4ORCE 05 design having already been homologated. There would, however, be scope for the deal to be expanded, although the roadmap for that was to be decided. Furthermore, Marelli would also return as a major part supplier in the 2026/27 season, having won the tender to supply the entire field with Front Motor Generation Units for the Generation 4 ruleset, its first time working as a technical partner of Spark Racing Technologies.

Products

Marelli has had several involvements in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, having worked with a couple of teams previously as well as sign a deal to supply parts for the whole series for the Generation 4 ruleset.

Mahindra M3Electro: 2016/17

Marelli's first creation for the FE Championship would be the motors that Mahindra Racing used for the M3Electro during the 2016/17 season, which were based on a prototype developed by the Italian firm using a six-phase system, with two control units and its own bespoke software. With Mahindra's influence this was further tweaked to use dual inverters due to the fact that the motor was in essence two three-phase motors working together in a single casing, although to counter this Marelli would develop an F1 based silicon-carbide switch. The motor would also be mounted transverse,y and would only have two gears to work from, an initial launch gear and then a more efficient longer second gear for racing speeds post the start of the race.

The design would show good one-lap pace, and would claim a maiden win for Mahindra and Marelli with victory at the 2017 Berlin ePrix I in the hands of Felix Rosenqvist, allowing Mahindra Racing to end the season in third place for the campaign.

Andretti ATEC-02/Penske 701-EV: 2016/17

The 2016/17 season also saw Marelli's first eMotor design sold to the Andretti Formula E and Dragon Racing outfits, with both developing their own powertrains for season three courtesy of Andretti Technologies and Penske respectively. However, while Dragon would replicate the Mahindra style of mounting the motor, and would also work with Mahindra and Marelli to do so, Andretti would mount their eMotor longitudinally as had been the case with the original Spark-Renault SRT_01E design, and would use three gears instead of two.

Mahindra M4Electro: 2017/18

Mahindra continued to use the Marelli motor design for the 2017/18 season for their M4Electro design, although their technical partnership would not extend as far as it had in 2016/17, with Mahindra using Renesas for software for the car. Indeed, Mahindra would instead secure the IP rights for the design meaning other outfits would have to find their own designs, with Mahindra engineers further working on the design as a result without as much input from Marelli engineers.

By the end of the season the partnership between Mahindra and Marelli would be dissolved as Mahindra instead commissioned ZF to develop their systems for the Gen 2 era.

Generation 4: 2026/27 - 2029/30

By winning one of the available tenders for the Generation 4 ruleset, Marelli would return to major component manufacturing in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, supplying front MGU equipment and systems for the entire field, which would be capable of deploying 300kW of power as well as harness 350kW in re-generative braking.

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