How to convert google calendar date into a usable date? ('20240713T011500Z')

I'm getting google calendar events, via iCal, which have a date like this:

'20240713T011500Z'

The regular php funcs dont seem to like this format. This function works, but seems pretty clunky. Is there not a built in way to deal with this format?

function convertGCalDate($gdate){
    $parts = explode('T', $gdate);
    $date  = $parts[0];
    $nums  = str_split($date);
    $date  = $nums[0].$nums[1].$nums[2].$nums[3].'-'.$nums[4].$nums[5].'-'.$nums[6].$nums[7];
    
    $time = trim($parts[1], 'Z');
    $zulu = str_ends_with($parts[1], 'Z');
    
    $nums    = str_split($time);
    $newtime = $nums[0].$nums[1].':'.$nums[2].$nums[3].':'.$nums[4].$nums[5];
    
    $dt = $date.' '.$newtime;
    
    // this is my TZ func, it works, when I finally get the dt into the right format.
    // $datetime = new DateTime($time);
    // $datetime->setTimezone($that_tz);
    // etc
    $dt = getTimeInThisTimezone($dt, $thatTZ = 'Z', $thisTZ = 'America/Los_Angeles', $outformat = null);
    
    return $dt;
    //2024-07-12 7:15 pm

}

$whatIwant =  convertGCalDate('20240713T011500Z');

I assume that input properly validated. I think date() and strtotine() should do the trick.

function convertGCalDate($gdate){
return echo date('Y-m-d H:i:s',strtotime($gdate));
}