As early as in the 30:s there was a coachbuilding factory i the small town of Laholm in southern Halland. During the 50:s Karlaverken got a reputation to be one of the greater manufacturers of bodywork. Some of the more serious competeters were GRIP and VALBO. The factory was run by Gunnar Tärby who introduced ' a Karlawagon from Karlaverken '. From the factory in Laholm and later even Kungsbacka buses, lorries and vans were made. On the 445-chassis they produced mostly pickups, but it was the bigger PV 833- and 834-chassis that stood for the main part of the production. When the duett was introduced in 1953 Karlaverken released a well built and good looking van on the 833-chassis. After thoroughely tests an agreement with Volvo was set that Volvo was to sell the wagon namned ' Volvo Express '. The Volvo Express was seen on the Volvo P 1900-tour in 1954. What made Volvo decide to put effort in the Volvo Express was that it had a cabinconstruction all in metal, no wooden frame. A total of 1500 Volvo Express were built and many of these were built for Vattenfall. The cost of building a bodywork on the chassis were 5 475 Svkr in 1957.

Many cars from Karlaverken were distrubuters for Coca Cola. Most wagons were built on the L 420 chassis ( Volvo Snabbe ) but also the L 340 chassis were used. The L 340 chassis were similar to the PV 830 chassis. In both cases the bodywork were built from american sketches. The companies name Karlaverken ( KARosserifabriken i LAholm ) ended in 1969 but the company still exist as the of the swedish governemt owned LAGAB. They manufactures parts for trucks such as convertible stakebeds.

Information about Karlaverken is taken from the article written by Bengt Carlén in the swedish Volvo PV-clubs magazine nr. 2 -86.

Published 2002-09-12