Spain produces more cars per year than the UK and France and Russia only slightly less than the UK and well more than Italy. SEAT sells more cares than any British marque. So your criteria for having a 'major automobile industry' are pretty unclear.

Moreover, it's not obvious that nationalities have much to do with it. European countries have had lots of car manufacturers in the past. Even a small country like Denmark without any (significant) present-day production has had over a dozen producers historically. You're sort of 'begging the question' here, implying already in the question that the answer to why a small fraction of auto-maker start-ups have succeeded where most fail is due to their nationality, and not only that but that there's some common trait explaining why some countries succeed and fail. Why would it not - say - be a simple matter of some businesses succeeding and others failing all for their own reasons?