When the CO2 laser welder with 6 kW output was used to weld 4 TRIP steels, 2 DP steels and a precipitation-hardened steel, which have the tensile strength in the range of 600–1000 MPa, the effect of welding speed on hardening characteristics was investigated. In the weld of TRIP steels and DP steels, the maximum hardness was shown in the fusion zone and the HAZ near the bond line, and the hardness was decreased from the HAZ to the base metal. Only in the PH600 steel, the maximum hardness was shown in the fusion zone and the hardness was decreased from bond line to the base metal. The maximum hardness value was not changed due to the variation of the welding speed within a given range of the welding speed. When the correlation with maximum hardness value using 6 known carbon equivalents was examined, those of CEL (=C+Si/50+Mn/25+P/2+Cr/25) and PL (=C+Mn/22+14B) were 0.96 and 0.95 respectively, and CEL was better because it could reflect the contribution of Si and Cr added to AHSS. The maximum hardness value could be calculated by the equation “Hmax=701CEL+281”. The phase transformation analysis indicated that only martensitic transformation was expected in the given range of the welding conditions. Therefore, the maximum hardness of the weld was the same as that of water cooled steel and not changed with the variation of the welding speed