The picture goes out to 2020 but it is obviously confidential information. I have shown you that part as most of the models have been released and/or announced and to show that the car is called CX.
This information was shown in 2013 so it is entirely possible that timing will move around a bit, as you mentioned with the ES.
I am not sure why GS would have such a short cycle. First generation ran 98 - 05 and second 05 - 12 so 5/6 years seems very quick.
7 years for the CT is way to long especially with only one body variant and engine. I was told that engineering resources were moved from NG CT to the CX as it was seen as a much higher volume selling vehicle. I just think TMC/Lexus need more resources not to be constantly delaying product releases.
Finally I understand that the new CT is based on the new Toyota/Lexus FWD modular platform of which Prius is the first vehicle to be released on.
For GS, it would be opportunity cost - they have new platform, use it to gain more sales, profit and not make its sales dwindle by having some crazy long life cycle that makes no sense. It is also reasonable "halo" sedan for the rest of the brand, something that can sell in larger number than LS/LC and show
Considering it takes them 3-4 years to build a new vehicle from grounds up, and considerably less to make a sister vehicle to Toyota, it is quite likely that things got shuffled around since 3 years ago. ES data being wrong is strange since 3rd year facelift is a common thing in Toyota world, it is expected. I wonder whats the TX status now compared to then, that and CX are way bigger priorities than CT itself. Another missing thing is no mention of LX in the graph, that got substantial facelift, far bigger than usual and that would have started before 2013.
I would not be surprised if CX and TX got pushed forward, especially since Toyota C-HR is going to start production some 6 months from now. That seems quicker than expected, and considering that C-HR gets trailed by Lexus NX during testing in Europe, I wonder if CX is coming sooner than 2018. Opportunity cost again. Same goes for TX.
Lexus brand is growing quickly, 4 brand new vehicles added between 2014 and 2017 is a lot. There is no lack of effort certainly... CT, CX, NX, ES, IS, RC, RX, GS, GX, LS, LX, LC as well as GS-F, RC-F.