Toyota Motor Corp. has taken the global automotive sales lead from General Motors Corp. in the first quarter, selling 2.41 million vehicles to GM’s 2.25 million.

GM said Wednesday its sales dropped across the globe by less than 1 percent, but Toyota says its sales were up 2.7 percent during the January-through-March period.

GM barely won the global sales race with the Japanese automaker last year.

The Detroit automaker says a record 64 percent of its sales came from outside the United States.

Toyota says strong demand in Europe supported its worldwide sales.