Ercole Marelli has founded this company in 1891, which specialized on the production of electrical equipment and motors. Since 1915, one dealt with the ignition in the car and there is a joint venture with Fiat (F abbrica Italiana Magneti Marelli) from 1919. Marelli brought the factory in Sesto San Giovanni, Province of Milan.

In addition to magneto ignitions for cars, motorcycles, industrial engines and various racing engines were also produced generators, horns, wipers, lighting systems and starter and spark plugs for aircraft engines already since 1920. The production of batteries followed. Incredibly in which diversity Marelli practised advanced training and research starting as low as about 1926:

The production of radios did not have to wait long with this preparation. They were made under slightly different name from 1930. At the same time, the company produced under its own name professional equipment for broadcasting and military purposes. To a first joint venture with Bosch for the production of car and motorcycle electrics it came in 1935.

The company described itself as a beneficiary of the activities of the famous Italian physicist Enrico Fermi. The was busy at that time with the neutron bombardment of heavy atoms and the resulting decay products. Fermi received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1938.

Magneti Marelli has maintained the activities for radio, television and military even after the Second World War. It was only in the sixties, one decided to re-intensification of the automotive sector. The telecommunications sector was sold and a company acquired that produced spark plugs.

A larger conglomerate of companies was summarized under the umbrella of Fiat in 1967, including several producers of radios and televisions for the consumer market. Marelli focused back on the car market and developed e.g., a first electronically controlled ignition for racing engines in 1968.

To the second joint venture 'Mabo' with Bosch in 1967 was one with the former as producer from carburettors famous company Weber in Bologna in 1979. In addition to further development of the company to the largest producer of car electronics in Italy was perhaps interesting the relocation of corporate headquarters to Cinisello Balsamo and restructuring into a holding.

Magneti Marelli had approximately 37,000 employees and was present in 19 countries in 2012 and was active on virtually every field of electrics and electronics in the car. This includes both the infotainment, instrumentation and lighting as well as the management of petrol and diesel engines.

Other important branches are the chassis, the exhaust emission and noise attenuation and the modern processing of plastic and the device configuration for workshops. A special tendency seems still to exist for motor sports, as well as many current pictures show above. 06/14