Yes per Mag-X it is cancelled. In reality, it seems that USA and other regional Lexus divisions, are not up to speed as some sources at HQ in Japan leaking info to Japanese media.
In response to a recent reply, any talk about a fuel cell Lexus may not have any bearing. Unless it came directly from Japan recently, then likely it's from a regional division that's uninformed.
This tells me more than likely, the few people
I heard give assurance of no GS cancellation were also likely wrong and just not yet informed back in spring 2017.
Mag X got the jump on them, which I happened to catch 2 years ago. I only relented from that GS rumour upon looking at, what was probably outdated industry databases, who probably do better with knowing about US/CAN-assembled Lexus against those made in JP. Plus uninformed UK and USA personnel giving me assurances.
I am now over the belief that the GS-F and GS 300B programme was ever resurrected and it has always been cancelled since the fall of 2016, right before Mag X reported it in December 2016.
The language being used in this December 2018 issue ( released 2018/10/26 ) regarding the LS-FC cancellation echoes that of the GS announcement in late December 2016 for MAG-X's February 2017 issue.
The April 2019 300B production date was the target in the end (pushed from late 2018), so I can imagine 30 months prior to that would've been design freeze circa October 2016 and management vetoed it at that very moment.
Committing to such a crucial stage, would mean spending money to finish developing it into a production model and creating production tooling.
Thus, no more GS, but no announcements yet about its demise.
At that point, the 240/241B programme ES was already frozen months earlier and probably couldn't really be reworked anymore as a GS replacement.
AWD is likely a late ES addition intended to be offered as soon as the
GS ends production around March.
I can't speak for the Fuel Cell LS, as I haven't had much interest in it as a petrol head nor familiar with the needed lead times for such a vehicle.
But I strongly believe it is cancelled and trust Mag-X on this.
My problem with this is that I'm tired of Toyota canceling models halfway through developing them and probably wasting resources that could have been better utilized elsewhere.
They need to be more on the ball with product planning, as seen with excellent TNGA-C and TNGA-K products, but slow to arrive GA-F and GA-L. To think what could've gone towards a plug-in, TNGA-F, nd another Dynamic Force engine between the 2.5 I4 and V35A-FTS turbo 6, if this cancellation is true.
I cannot imagine how much was expended on this, to be discarded.